$50k - $80k Budget…Opinions please.

I have never encouraged anybody, friend or associate,  to spend on HiFi in using great sums of monies, but if an individual is set in the mind and want to indulge themselves, I will assist with suggesting options to consider if prompted.

As a first suggestion, Start receiving demo's of New Model devices of Interest or complete set ups, that will cost in today's money $120 000+.

When the funds materialise the shortlist put together might be able to be found for very close to your budget.  

As an alternative suggestion, an investigation into and receiving demo's of used equipment in the range of similar monies referred to above, could be presenting devices that have had much more substantial retail prices and have a few reviews on them to be found, that might be valuable and worthwhile reading, especially learning how the devices might have worked in conjunction with other devices.

80K being touted as a budget to become available will win one quite a few friends, cautious steps will be needed.

With that size of budget it will be easy to be tempted by quantity, range of sources.

IME you should first ruthlessly analyses your priorities re sources. I am a big fan of FM radio. I have a Magnum Dynalab 109 tuner with upgraded Phillips 6922 Nos valves and a sizeable roof mounted FM aerial, But, I have the joys of BBC Radio 3 FM broadcasting. Without that I am not sure I could justify it. So depends on whether you have access to good quality FM broadcasts

Similar considerations apply to AV amps/home theatre,digtal and analogue sources.

Once you have determined your priorities only then should you start trying to decide which manufactures products best suit your tastes and the only way to do that is to listen to as many of them as possible preferably in home settings. The next hurdle is finding the right synergy between different brands.

Explore the used market. Even on the best brands depreciation from new is hefty and with due diligence you can make big savings on well cared for used gear.

I like my Vitus 030 integrated amplifier, YG Acoustics speakers apart from the PeaK series and my J Sikora turntable/tonearm and Goldnote PH1000 phono stage and PSU.. Can recommend them all wholeheartedly for their balance between musicality, neutrality and transparency, but they represent my personal tastes and others have different tastes.

I hope that is helpful and I wish you well in your search which you should take your time on and avoid rushing to conclusions

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I second the room as first priority. After that Rockport speakers and Boulder amps! Good luck and have fun! 

@magnuman … “sorry to tell you that you don't know what you're talking about just because the system costs $160,000 doesn't mean it's going to sound better than an $80,000 system ”

Sorry you did not read my post. I did not say you can randomly pick components at a price point and have them out perform components at another price point. You must carefully choose them an make sure they are synergistic and compatible. Did you just fall off the turnip truck? You are clearly trying to act superior… try to be helpful and humble instead. 

So very true @ghdprentice I am listening to a small SPL Audio system that just sounds amazing and it came in under $10K. I am not saying it is a giant killer but it is an amazing brand and has come cutting edge technology under the hood.