Component Advice for Small Room with Lively Surfaces

Thanks very much for your suggestion. Very much appreciate it. Had not even considered the setup you recommended. Sound quality is much more important than pretty furniture so wide open there. You have a phenomenal system...would you recommend tubes in my case? I was also thinking of an integrated amp but maybe separates would be better? Wide open to any thoughts and suggestions.

I would totally recommend an integrated tube amp. You will find it very hard indeed to beat that Raven integrated with any combination of separates without spending a lot more money. Not only for the components, which you cannot even come close to the Raven for $3-4k, but then as well with the extra power cord and interconnect the separates require. Its not even close. 

Plus Raven is made here in the USA. Well technically Texas, which is even better.

The components I listed are exactly what I would get were I in a situation of having to buy it all from scratch and knowing what I know now. This system will be a bit heavy on the front end. That is to say, in terms of it being a starting point (systems usually are a starting point no matter what anyone says) the turntable/arm/cart/phono stage will be essentially lifetime awesome. The DBA will be lifetime awesome. Rough estimate your budget will be about $5k for all the wire. So wire, and accessories like HFT, ECT, and some other details (tweaks) will be your logical areas for upgrades for the next little while.

But you will not need more power. You will be beside yourself with pleasure and finding it hard to believe such awesome sound quality is even possible, as it will be better than anything you have heard, or indeed likely ever will hear, for quite some time to come. Especially in terms of bass. You absolutely will never experience bass anything like what you will get with a DBA. All the rest will be awesome but the bass will have you shaking your head in disbelief over and over again. 

PS- Duke, Audiokinesis who posted above, is the designer and seller of the Swarm subwoofer system, and helped me build mine.

My thoughts are:

Speaker Dispersion: If you can handle a tight listening area, get speakers with controlled dispersion. Horns, panels, line arrays and bi-polars are good ideas.

Acoustics: As I read your description, you don’t have a lot of surface area you can treat, so treat the ceiling and floor as much as you can, as well as the stone wall. Also, consider standing up GIK soffit traps in the corners.

https://www.gikacoustics.com/

EQ: Consider a pre or integrated with built in room correction like Anthem. This will help you get the most out of your speakers with least effort.

https://anthemav.com/products/series=str-series

Strongly encourage you to talk to GIK first, get the best you can in room acoustics, followed by EQ. More at my post here:

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-not-buy-subwoofer.html

"In my opinion working "with the room" rather than "against the room" matters a great deal... especially in small, lively room"

This makes alot of sense Duke and I am wondering if there are any particular dipoles and horns that you would recommend? Thank you

millercarbon, thanks very much for your recommendation on the Raven. Had no idea they are made in Texas, which is where I live. I will be sure to check them out. Really do appreciate your in-depth explanation and observations.

erik_squires, thank you for your thoughts. You are correct in that there is not a lot of surface area in the room that can be treated. I don't think the stone wall is treatable either as it has stainless steel built in cabinets for components and albums and 4 stainless steel niches for guitar displays. Will definitely check out your suggested acoustic and EQ treatments. Are there any particular controlled dispersion speakers that would be worth considering? 

Thanks to you both.

I had a challenging room though not as bad as you describe yours. I ended up using ARC room correction. I used Dirac as well but I liked Anthems line of products better. Either one should help with reflections and bass integration, I found the latter more important to me as I am not a fan of boomy bass that vibrates your insides. Another thing that would help is rugs on the floor and upholstered furniture.
Edit: I didn't notice you mentioned spinning vinyl. ARC or Dirac used would be doing analog to digital conversions which is something you might not want.