Although I liked the look of the huge HK amp (it's a bit of a monster at 20kg) I decided that it was too much over budget and resigned myself to buying the Onkyo A5VL. However after listening to it and a Marantz PM6003 there was no comparison; the Marantz just sounded much, much better.
So in the end I went for a Marantz PM6003 and a CA Dacmagic. Not the neat solution I wanted, but it does sound good. The HK amp does look good and has been highly rated in other publications so might be worth considering. I also believe the HK cd player is similarly highly rated, though like the amp I never went as far as arranging a demo.