Quote Originally Posted by blackraven
Thats a great budget you have there and you will have lots of options. If you are worried about compression of music on CD's, I would strongly consider going with an SACD player. Like one of these Marantz players- http://us.marantz.com/Products/616.asp Or one of the Ayre players http://www.ayre.com/products.cfm What type of music do you like to listen too?

For that live sound, I would consider looking at the Magnepan MG 3.6 speakers if you have the room. http://www.magnepan.com/model_MG_36

Other speakers I really like like are Thiels http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Site.../CS2.4se.shtml

PSB Synchrony one's made in canada- http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/.../Synchrony-One

Acouple of other speakers to consider are Dynaudio and Salk's.


For an amp and preamp, I would consider these companies- Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, Ayre, McIntosh, Krell. I would consider going with a Vacuum tube set up for a warmer richer sound.
i listen to, pop, pop rock, classical, heavy metal and death metal. no jazz though~ nth against jazz.

the first brand i plan to check out is Mcintosh. honestly i have never had the oppertunity to listen to their products before. the appearance of Mcintosh just catches my eyes for some reason.

so here is the question. let say i have now purchased a pre amp/amp that supports HT bypass and i plan on adding 3 more speakers right now. are there any extra components i need to buy besides the 3 speakers?

i just want the tube sound~ but have 5.1 when i need to.