hello jackman,
how much is the audionote kit? i have heard of audionote but i've never listened to one of their products. it sounds like you have a dilemma which way you would like to go with your system.
i have the perpetual technologies p3a dac which i'm quite happy with. i'm going to buy an output board from tony from g&d transforms which he makes for pioneer cdp's. my pioneer has one of his clock upgrades which is quite good, although not quite as good as the pt dac. also, i hear that hugh dean from aksa may in the next 12 months design a kit dac which i'll buy.
anyway good luck.
regards
rod