building the best system I can?

putting this system together would be sourced with a dac and cdp and music server. The use of the $5000 would be to put together a system that you could be proud of for the long term. I guess this is more of a hypothetical
question than anything else. Just thaugt it would be fun to see what you guys would do if you had $5000 to spend on audio gear. Just have fun.

Lol! I just got into all this 8 months ago and initially bought a used onkyo t..7... Something or rather and a pair of new mini monitors. It sounded good enough that I caught the bug. Since then I have bought/ upgraded quite a bit and will save you the hassle of all the upgrades. What I have now is: a used classe ssp 25 ($350), a used classe ca-150'($800), a used denon DVD 2900 ($100), a new musical fidelity v-dac II ($500 including tax and an audioquest digital coax), a new pangea p 100 upgraded external power supply for the dac ($100), two used ps audio power punch cords, one for the amp, the other for the pre-amp ($60), new 25 foot 10 gauge blue jeans cables with bananas cold welded ($105), pair of used diamond back and a pair of new g-snakes ($90 for both), and last, a pair of new studio 20's ($1500, had to pay retail as I kept upgrading and payed the difference). So not including the speakers, I have $2,100 in it. Most of it was thought out, some was bought because it just became available atthe right time, right place sort of thing. I want to still upgrade a pair of rca's, buy a pair of xlr's and two more power cords, maybe my dac later. Other than that, I'm done. This setup sounds great to me and I like it's size and simplicity. Rather than upgrade this system anymore, I'd rather just keep this the way it is and build another. Maybe vinyl with tubes?

i agree with the integrated amp route--a couple that i'm enamored of are the hk990 (which i've seen packaged with the matching cdp for <2k) and the vincent 236 (which you can find used with a matching cdp for <2k). the hk has the advantage of inboard dacs, bass management, etc. as for speakers, since your friend already has the studio 20s, i'd start with 'em, add a sub and see how it sounds. paradigm's studio sub 12 would be a logical match--i see 'em used for around a grand, though you get a vg rel or hsu for less. for a music server, i defer to others--i have a $250 squeezebox touch which which works just fine, although depending on your friend's needs there's a number (e.g. olive) which have integrated cd players, internal storage, etc. budget a few bucks for cables and wires and you'll still have some $$ left over for upgrades, room treatments, etc.

It's interesting how many of you suggest integrated over seperates.

what if I used a mccormack dna-1 or 0.5 as main amp? Any suggestions on a pre amp? I have some money to spend so lets see what we can come up with. Thanks