I literally just did this in the past month with a good friend of mine who bought his first house. Starting from scratch and similar budget. Here is what we came up with.
Yamaha A-S301 integrated - $350 new
Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers - $400 new
SVS SB1000 sub - $250 used
Echo Dot as a source -$29
A few cables and speaker stands from Amazon for around $100 and a few donated items (sub cable, speaker cables from my bone yard) and he is under $1200 all in.
It sounds surprisingly good for less than I have in my MC cartridge. He uses the echo dot to stream Amazon music and spotify. The yamaha also has digital inputs so we have his smart TV hooked up as well. He is pleased as can be.
Good luck figuring your system out.
Yamaha A-S301 integrated - $350 new
Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers - $400 new
SVS SB1000 sub - $250 used
Echo Dot as a source -$29
A few cables and speaker stands from Amazon for around $100 and a few donated items (sub cable, speaker cables from my bone yard) and he is under $1200 all in.
It sounds surprisingly good for less than I have in my MC cartridge. He uses the echo dot to stream Amazon music and spotify. The yamaha also has digital inputs so we have his smart TV hooked up as well. He is pleased as can be.
Good luck figuring your system out.