does it need to be complicated

Sunday am update, i went to a local highend audioghile store yesterday (simply Stero) they were busy and understaffed When i briefly spoke to the owner and a customer they poo pooed the Yamaha as weak and substandard they said a Athemn they had on display would be a much better option. I am getting clearer and understand nothing is perfect but should i just max out my budget and bite the bullet and buy the  machintosh 5300 for better or worst and just move on? My other thought was buy 2 units like from crutchfield and see which sounds best with my speakers is that fair? Anyway the turntable,CD player will not be a problem the only decsionis which intergrated amp will suite me best i am okay with a indepedent streamer with dac as i get it and when the technlodgy changes i can easily upgrade that componet.

Hope you all have a good day it is hot in Chicagoland

I have a very, very high end dealer who carries Yamaha for his budget customers, and for good reason.  I’ve heard a Yamaha sound surprisingly great with a nice set of speakers in show conditions.  Anthem is great stuff, but probably better known for their A/V receivers and their room correction software.  For you, a big factor should probably be the quality of the phono stage.  I’d be surprised if Anthem outperforms the Yamaha there.  Bottom line is you’re not gonna get consensus on this choice, so at a certain point, you’re gonna have to go with your gut, based on your budget, research, and whatever listening you can do.

You have a 17x17' room = square, which is the worst for bass management. I am in the same boat as you. I use a diagonal set-up, which works reasonably well for me. Non-conventional, but works.

Is this an empty room, or does it have furniture in it? My room is the guest bed room, and the mattress acts as a large bass absorber, book shelf with books as a diffuser behind listening position. I made additional absorption from discarded shipping pallet wood and Roxul 180 (towels work as well). Lots of YouTube videos on that.

If you cannot add sound controls to your room, consider near-field listening (taking the room out of the equation), though your Klipsch are unlikely to be suitable for that. Digital Room Correction is NOT going to solve the node problems in a square room, sorry.

Re TT, lots of option in the ~1K range. Depends a bit of what features you want (automatic vs manual, belt vs. direct drive, color options, integrated phono preamp or not). Re cartridge, MM for sure, maybe something like an Ortofon 2Mblue or bronze. With many ~1K TTs a cart is supplied with it. Possibly start there, and if you want upgrade thereafter.

For amp, I would look at second hand market. I would not worry too much about brand (stick to majors, IMHO), rather whether you like the look, whether it has phono stage built in (see above re TT options). 

Good luck!

I live in the Chicago area and agree the number of brick and mortar dealers are down to a precious few.  My recommendations are as follows, as I personally own these pieces with the exception of the Rega, as I exclusively stream music nowadays.

Belles Aria Integrated amplifier, 75w per channel with excellent phono stage.-$2495

Bluesound Nano Streamer/dac-$379

Rega Planar One Turnable- includes quality cartridge-$595

Get some quality speaker wire and cables, but don’t go crazy-$750

call John Rutan at Audio Connection in New Jersey.  He is the most honest, patient dealer on the planet.  Might have some of those pieces used, but carries all those lines.

Gary

Used Hegel H390 would fill all of your needs, except for a phono preamp....those can be found cheap enough. The Hegel H390 includes: preamp, amp, streamer, and DAC. They are excellent as an all in one unit