Buy used, to stretch your dollar. Buy 1 component at a time to allow for better quality components. Over time, you’ll end up with a killer system. As you buy each component you’ll have a better sense of what’s next and what you want, rather than buying a bunch of stuff that you’ll later regret. Don’t spend money on cables initially - get BlueJeans cables. You’d have to spend a lot more money and it would still be unclear if you were doing better than BlueJeans. Focus on speakers and/or amplification first. If you have decent speakers, get a nice integrated amp, if not spend the 2.5k on a good pair of tower speakers. Speakers have the greatest impact on sound, so get them right and They will last you decades. Also consider sound treatments and room correction below 300Hz - either using a MiniDSP, or an AVR. I would do a 2017 or 2018 year Marantz avr on closeout pricing. They have preouts, so you can always add a good amp to it at a later date (maybe 6012 or 5013 for around $500 if you can find it)
The purists will scoff at the idea of room correction, however none of us live in ideal rooms, and the sound is being affected and degraded by the room, so thinking of untreated sound as being pure is a fallacy to begin with.if you ignore all the concerns and pay attention to the results, you may be pleasantly surprised.
The purists will scoff at the idea of room correction, however none of us live in ideal rooms, and the sound is being affected and degraded by the room, so thinking of untreated sound as being pure is a fallacy to begin with.if you ignore all the concerns and pay attention to the results, you may be pleasantly surprised.