I'm new to this. Critique my tentative plan?

Hi -- I am new to the world of high end audio. I got interested after a friend lent me his stereo, which is a Conrad-Johnson LS17 Preamp and MV-60 amplifier. He has a custom DAC from a defunct manufacturer. The setup sounds, from naive point of view, breathtaking. Remarkable detail, clarity, and warmth on a great soundstage.

For him -- and for me as I get into this -- the dominant usage case is streaming lossless or other high-quality files from an iTunes source to a DAC, then having a system put out two-channel stereo sound.

What I have now: An extensive digital library of music, a cheap integrated Onkyo amp, and a pair of 30 year old B&W bookshelf speakers up on stilts. The speakers sound great and my tentative plan is to keep them.

The question is --- what to get? I'd like to spend well under $3,000. My first thought was to buy a DAC, preamp, and amplifier, or an integrated amp and preamp. I listened to the Rogue Audio Atlas gear that Stereophile recommends, but missed the lost clarity. I also listened to a Pathos Classic One, which sounded better but not nearly as good as the CJ setup that spoiled me.

Here's what I'm thinking: Rather than get a preamp at all, I could get a DAC, passive attenuator, and power amplifier. Tentatively: The Channel Islands VDA-2 DAC, matching attenuator, and a used MV-60. As an experiment, I connected the MV-60 I'm borrowing up without a preamp, and it sounded amazing.

What do you all think?