Hey all, I am new to this forum but not new to audio. I would describe myself as a strong audio enthusiast who aspires to be an audiophile but does not quite have the budget yet. My musical interests range from hard rock, alternative to experimental quirky and lounge stuff. Having a house with 3 young kids makes it difficult for daddy to listen to any kind of grown-up music right now. I have the whole surround sound system down for watching movies, but now I want to build something special for the living room.

I would like to be able to listen to some higher end recordings, on 180-200g vinyl. I have an extensive and outdated collection of rock on vinyl that is all scratched from a previous life on panasonic and luxman turntables. I also have a middle sized collection of cd's and some decent super audio cd's but rarely listen to them. I now have about 80gb of mp3's, some high quality rips some not.

I have a decent pair of Monitor Audio Silver 3i's on stands in my 20 x 22 living room. I would like to build a very nicely presentable system around them, as few components as possible but very nice and sweat sounding, for entertaining adult dinner or party guests at our house. I would like to start with vinyl and mp3's only, no cd's and no radio. I think my starting budget should be about $2500 for now just so my wife doesn't get too upset. I have always wanted a tube amp, but most seems out of my budget. I also want a decent turntable, like a Rega or Music Hall.

What can you guys suggest for a decent system, all inclusive, in my budget range? I would be willing to entertain used equipment but I know this can be difficult to find and sometimes troublesome to fix. I am in the Chicago suburbs, so there are quite a few decent hifi stores in the area, including my favorite MusicDirect.