Where do you start? Is there any hope?

With all of the information to process, where does someone start. I love both music and movies, but want to get the best 2 channel I can for the money.

I would like to get into a cd system that will let me enjoy variuos types of music. But I am on a Cracker Jack budget.

Is it possible to get started with about $500.00 or should I just buy the IPOD and some headphones?