Hello everyone,
Over the last 2 years I've completely updated my 20 year old 2 channel stereo. I put $3500 as the price, because that's retail, but I paid less. My new system:
NAD C355bee Int. Amp (80w/channel)
NAD C545bee CD player
B&W CM7 speakers
Audioquest cables

This 2 channel music system is amazing. I actually get chills during certain recordings. I listen to a wide range of music. For example, recent purchases of Adele, Zac Brown, Los Lonely Boys, Josh Rouse, Little Jackie, just to name a few.

I find it totally depressing that a whole generation is missing out on good audio equipment and well recorded music. Mass market stereos are so far from my system it's embarrassing and add to that MP3 quality music and it's garbage and most people have no clue. You cannot get chills from listening to a best buy system with an MP3 source.

But back to my new system. It's sublime. I cannot believe the quality I'm getting from this neat little package. I truly find it hard to believe that I will ever want to improve it further. I realize I can spend 10 times on a system, but this system delivers so much for what I would call a budget hi-end system that I'm truly satisfied.

I will say that I tried all these components separately and while they were still impressive, they are a magnitude better in combination with each other.