New to the game. Need some beginners advice.

if you just seek tight bass and a coherent sounding system you can save a lot of money and time with NAD equipment. OTOH, if you want to transcend the limits
of the-commonly-thought-of-as-a-good-sounding-system it WILL take a great deal of research and/or spending gobs of money on often-weird-and-inconvenient components (i.e.- when they break which can happen much more often than you anticipated, you might spend 6-8 weeks calling, writing, and waiting for your state-of-the-art component to return so you can start listening again).
i chose the 2nd route of course, but i still often long for the SAE-2 integrated amplifier i once had, with fluorescent meters and lots of tone-shaping controls, a phono input, 70W/CH, wood-veneer side panels, etc. i later bought the matching tuner and was rocking out to the radio, too. AND i don't remember ever saying to myself- "this sounds bad". i was having way too much fun, and the system even did a decent job playing Beethoven. Of course, NOW i have a MUCH better hi-fi costing obscene amounts just for a 3 foot piece of wire, and i am buying SACD's that after one listening wish i could return for a refund. of course certain other discs sound deliciously real. as long as i either choose carefully or just get lucky.
but at the same time i don't DARE put on a Jefferson airplane alblum which screeches instead of "flows" out of the speakers. James Taylor "Sweet Baby James"
(a typical pressing) doesn't sound like it was mixed properly anymore. the record used to sound fine, but that was years ago in a land far far away...
here's one more special surprise- CSN&Y- wait a minute! what is wrong with this record?! it sounds like it was pieced together using an 8-track cassette deck...
but hey, it's your choice. at times it's kind of like driving a lamborghini- racing the wind at 140 MPH, or taking a wrong turn and getting stuck on a road full of pot-holes...

I wish to EXPAND a bit further on my rather negative comments made previously.
the real watershed moment for me was the day i bought a (used) pair of B&W 801 speakers. from then on, the music i had sounded much better - and in some cases WORSE. because of their far superior accuracy at reproducing nuances
that were always present but glossed over by my previous speakers i could hear so much more detail it was truly amazing. but then of course i had to resolve the problems raised by such a far superior transducer. a better DAC, a better preamp, a better transport (with a special digital interconnect), a levinson stereo amplifier (good Lord what a huge improvement over my SAE amplifier!). and finally wires (i went with audioquest at first). i remember coughing up $800 for a pair of used speaker cables- very necessary, and very difficult to work with garden hoses.
but as someone else mentioned here, piano recordings had a richness and clarity that helped me differentiate between the sound of one brand of piano from another. other instruments would leap from the speakers into the room. a Martin guitar would sound
so convincingly real and just like what i would hear when i got to play one in person. the female voice would no longer be a part of the "system" but would take on a life of its own. a really REALLY good system will take you step by step into the studio or the concert hall and sit you down with the people making the music.... AS LONG AS there is no crappy cheap electronics and/or a deaf engineer that screws up what you should be hearing.
i guess the final word on all of this is whether it becomes an "obsession" to get the best possible results OR at what stage you're willing to call it quits- which will vary for each one of us. as long as you can take the sound of a pair of $150,000 speakers in stride (or get freaked out and have to buy them), you must measure your ability to remain rational and objective as to how good they REALLY ARE, regardless of how wealthy you are (aren't).
like i said, stick to mid-fi. good night, sleep well...