Building a synergistic system. What to buy?

A good friend of mine is in the process of moving from a house to apartment, so doing pretty much what you're after.  He settled on a Musical Designs amp & preamp he got used for <1k total and is going to upgrade the caps in the pre.  He's getting ready to purchase some Fritz Carbon 6's and he already has some stands.  He's also going to downsize his VPI TT and keep his CDP.

There are definitely some deals to be had out there and it may take a bit of experimenting on your part to come up with a system you're satisfied with.

If I had to put together an apartment rig, I would prob opt for something like a Cary integrated and maybe Fritz spkrs.  Again, so many choices to make there is no correct answer.

Good luck!

Fritz has a home audition program, although I have not used that.  My friend bought a pair years ago and I bought them from him.  Underwood Wally also has a home audition program.  Both of these folks will talk with you on the phone, although you may have to leave a message.

I was thinking about the Cary SLI-80 int actually, as I'm a fan of both 6SN7's & KT88's. For a SS setup, I had a few different integrated's in a 2nd system 25 years ago, but the only one in the main system was an older Primare 30.1 for several years.  Don't know how the newer ones compare sound wise but I still use a Primare DAC in my system.

Also, like mesch mentioned, those 3 companies have really good auditioning programs.  Another friend of mine prob listened to a total of 10 preamps & amps before buying a Rogue preamp from one of those companies and the Schitt mono-blocks.  He bought the Schitt direct from them, so only a 15 day time window but he liked them enough to keep.  Schitt makes preamps (and other components) too and a lot of folks really like them.

I would check all the forums I could about what people say, including the AA site.

Good luck in your search.