Recommendations and thoughts for end game speakers and amps

Rockports are incredible.  There is nothing wrong with them as end-game speakers.  Boulder is brilliant with them.  I might also look at Constellation, Soulution and D'Agastino, but Boulder is safe and it is unlikely you will be disapointed.

There are a bunch of other awesome speakers in your price range.  Vivid G3s, Wilson Benesch ACT One Evolutions, etc... but they are not inherently better than Rockports.  Different and I might like their tech better but it is a matter of philosophy and taste.  

I don't think that you will get a lot more energy in the highs from the amplification.  Not sure how that DAC is.  Are you looking for an all-in-one exclusively?  Do you need internal DAC and streamer?   How big is your room.  I am thinking the Ayre AX-5 Twenty would be ideal in terms of sound profile but doesn't have the same feature set.  

Regarding cables, for value, I like Audioquest ICs (particularly water), Audioquest Robin Hood and William Tell for speaker cables and Puritan for Power though I am about to order and get demo's of Clarus.  I hear VERY good things about Clarus.  

InAkustik is my current favorite for mid-priced cables.  A pair of excellent copper speaker cables can be had for saner pricing  ($5k-$7K) and I am not sure you need silver.  

@tvad Compared to $15K....$5-$7k is quite reasonable.   That being said, no dealer (I am an AQ authorised dealer) can or should post discounted pricing in a forum.  That is a violation of the MAP.  

@ronboco  If you stick with the Boulder and DAC, I tend to find silver coated copper cables to drift a little brighter.  Nordost would be a good choice.  Only thing to note is that their cables are unshielded so you need to take care not to coil it.  

The OP said he was looking for cables that are more reasonable than $15K.  since this is an all-in-one solution, the only cables really are speaker and maybe a power cable so that was my inference.  Could be wrong.

You are right, those are $5-$7K.  I was thinking the copper versions which are much more modest in terms of MAP Pricing.  I quite like the Robin Hood cables in copper for the money. 

For InAkustik - reference air LS-4004 ($5500-$6600 MAP for 2-3 Meters) would be in that range.  The 1204 and 804 are less expensive.