But it's got all the streaming "fluff and bluff" you dismissively railed against when I suggested a similar solution to you in the form of the NAD M10 and Yamaha WXA-50...
By the way, welcome to the world of streaming, integrated amplifiers. I'm sure you'll enjoy it...
Indeed it does, but with my space constraints I'm left in a rather unfortunate position where I need to choose which enemy I'm willing to embrace.
With the Element P all the streaming nonsense is extremely easy to ignore (well, at least if the Element X is any indication, which I've already had the opportunity to fiddle around with). If all the features I do not need are sufficiently secluded -- and can be disabled or otherwise hidden -- such that it doesn't get in my way then I guess I don't mind. Well, I do still mind, but I will mind a lot less, haha.
Due to travels I've given myself a month to mull over this, so there is still plenty of time for me to just say "eff it" and stick to my Yamaha NX-N500 speakers; which incidentally do support MusicCast, but at least Yamaha had the foresight to add a big physical "WIRELESS: OFF" switch behind.
And yes, I'll continue to call it "streaming nonsense"
because as mentioned in my original post, I like owning and playing my music offline. It just works. And frankly the last thing I need is yet another networked appliance attached to my network to introduce yet another point of potential trouble, and once you've been in my shoes and witnessed firsthand how much the vast majority of companies invest in the security (and general reliability and upkeep) of their networked products (read: zero), you'll understand. IT is what I deal with day to day, so the last thing I want is more IT-related headaches at home; and hence why I've always been adamant in the simplicity of the products I personally own.
I've dealt with enough IT-related affairs at work, and don't need any more of that at home.