Help: ISO Beginner full setup for excellent sound on $2000 max budget

@millercarbon, f*** yeah, that's exactly what I want you to hear. Sorry, read the first posts, then responded. Just now reading your second post

@millercarbon, I saw your system and read some comments folks have left about you. You seem like the exact person I want to talk to about this. I'm in your world. Budget sucks, but I'm transitioning into a new career and have to go back to school again so I'm wanting something that I can listen to when I'm studying in my living room, or studying in my bedroom. I'm wanting the warmest, most inviting sound in my living room with that budget. I understand the importance of investing in quality, and I want to do that as best I can within the parameters I'm bound by. I'll post some of my favorite songs below to give you a sense of the music style I listen to on a regular basis.

Maybe that speaker and amp might be what I should invest in. The buddy who has this setup listens to very similar music to me.

In an ideal world, I would like a set up that can pull out depth in songs like these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy8cklFZ3sA

This is perfect, tbh. I mean, I know you were being cheeky earlier, but that’s exactly the kind of information I want to be told. This is not my wheelhouse, I don’t know anything about this, and so even what I want is skewed with the limited information that I have, and it sounds like I’m way out of my depth. But this is perfect, cause you have a ton of knowledge about this that I wish I knew myself in this moment, but I don’t.

So, we’ve established that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and that’s great. Here’s the context: Speakers and amp was suggested from a friend’s set up, turn tables are what I have been suggested as well. I’m not looking to make this my full-time hobby, but I’d love a steady beginner rig for $2000, which I think can be done. It won’t be ideal, but it’ll get the job done.

Do you have any suggestions for what you’d spend $ on, what you think might sound good if you went over to a friend’s house who had some cash to spend that wants to become a low-level audiophile?

@douglas_shroeder, You’ve explained a lot, and I appreciate your advice, I think is incredibly important to take into consideration, alongside other suggestions. I’m not sold on those speakers or that amp, as stated previously. Again, I know nothing about this subject, but there are millions of products out there that I could get within a 2k budget that could be fantastic for the lay person who is interested in getting better sound. This isn’t my wheelhouse, if you need any niche information about philosophy, IT Auditing, or bartending you can let me know, but I dont think many folks need to know the ins and outs to enjoy a good cocktail, or to understand the concepts or interlocutors in entry-level Kierkegaard.

If possible, though, can you or anyone else reading this help guide me, in layman’s terms, toward a system that could work. I’m not trying to be a 3 michelin star restaurant, I’m simply trying to make the Bib Gormond. Or, if you were taking a philosophy intro course, I’m looking for the survey data, I’m not looking to write a PhD thesis on the connection between sexuality, body politics, and their relation to finance-dominated capitalism.

If you could choose a nice-looking set up for somebody who looking to gain some knowledge but not dive into this headfirst, what’s respectable and what makes sense together based on the previous posts.

Also, I’m going back through everyone’s posts rn and looking at products and trying to understand them and why they would work together, just taking some time, I have some other projects I’m working on .

@br3098 yeah I think that’s right. I’m still not sure what the critique is other than: take my advice because you obviously don’t know what you’re doing." Which, given that I’ve explicitly said I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m still not sure what the critique is.

I need a librarian, somebody with industry knowledge that can point me toward sources so I can do whatever layman’s research I can to try to make an informed decision about something I know nothing about.

A bartender isn't going to tell you the ins and outs of spirit production and town history when you get a cocktail you like. They’re going to invite you in to have a drink and then if they ask questions about what they're drinking you can help understand what you’re drinking and why it's important and interesting. I liked your suggestions about Edwards Audio, I'll get back to you with some further questions.

I also like the direction of @mofojo thats more my speed. Does anyone have any critiques about that setup or would you swap out any pieces for better sound?

@soix You post was actually super helpful earlier, just got busy and didn’t respond. 

@douglas_schroeder yeah I’ve been oscillating between looking up products that have been suggested, reading 6moon reviews and Audigon forums, talking to some friends who are doing this right now, reading through others posts of people who have responded to this forum to see if anything is insightful, looking at transaction reviews to see if folks responding are reputable sources or if their customers trusted them, and trying to get an introductory lessons, via wiki or youtube, about physics basics for how to approach best sound, best use of power, best room setup. I’m trying to ask a lot of questions to start piecing together an image of the creature I’m blindly touching and trying to draw with the limited information I have that kind of feels an elephant (speaking figuratively). All the information hasn’t fallen on deaf ears, but there’s only so much time in the day to get these things done.

I appreciate the patience, the patronizing from some folks is understandable, but not really a helpful approach if you’ve got somebody who wants to learn but can’t leave your house to ask a shop, and I don’t know of many shops in my area that would care much about this subject if they even were open. I’m doing the best I can with the resources I have been given. Just know your suggestions have been looked at and the information I wanted to gather is in a spreadsheet along with the other suggestions made my folks. It just seems a bit foolish to start making a pie when you’ve never opened a recipe book about pies before, don’t have a family recipe in your back pocket, and don't really know what a pie is yet. 

The way I have always discovered information was to ask a lot of questions, and I apologize if some of these questions are beneath folks, or silly, or wrong, or I don’t what i’m talking about. I’m well aware of that, I stated it in my first post. I want to build this on my own, I don’t want this just handed to me from a record shop, all my reading has led me here, to Audigon, which is the whole purpose behind coming here and asking you all questions: you keepers of sacred knowledge.

So, whoever is reading this, I appreciate your help, know that I’m going through everything that people suggested, including you @soix , your suggestion was one of the first I looked at. Y’all have pointed me in some great directions so I’ll come back when I have further questions. Or if anyone wants to PM me you can, a few have and have been super helpful so far.