Looking for seperates under $5k~

Nemisis1218,

Bradf's suggestions on used Prima Luna gear is a great option.
A line stage and amp for UNDER your budget that easily will compete with 10k+ combos. You can recoup investment in the the event you don't care for a tube setup. Unless your tastes are for truly exotic or USA made, a good investment. 

Add speakers,source etc of equal quality used, and you may have a 20k retail setup for considerably less

I would jump on those listings if I were shopping.

PL Dialogue HP user here.

@gdnrbob  i second the McCormack amp and pre, and having some Steve personal upgrades done. for this will give you immaculate quality sound, and reliability by one of the very best in the game.  MCCORMACK IS THE WAY !

McCormack gear is very nice and is a great way to go IF you like the McCormack sound.  One has to figure that out for oneself.  I've owned quite a few pieces of Steve's equipment over the years.  SMcAudio upgraded my DNA-.5 and my DAC-1.  The DAC-1 became the Ultra Edition and I enjoyed that Ultra for several years.  Great sound and at the time I was hooked!  Prior to that, I bought a used Gold Edition DNA-1 and a Rev B+ DNA-1 here on Agon.  The B+ was the best of them all for my tastes.   It produced multidimensional, full bodied, musical sound that still exhibited the high level of transparency and resolution that this equipment is famous for.  I used the amps with TLC-1 Deluxe and/or RLD-1 preamps.  Later on down the road, Steve took my 2nd beloved DNA .5 to Gold Special Plus.  He put StillPoints under the main control board, installed the largest Nichicon Gold Tune output caps possible for loads of capacitance, Jupiter copper foil caps in the power supply, and several other special upgrades they may not have been offered to everyone.  The team at SMcAudio were such a pleasure to work with!  They were all very knowledgeable, friendly, helpful gentlemen and I'll always be grateful for the good work.  When all was said and done, my personal listening preferences leaned towards a more full bodied presentation of the tunes. Not knocking it folks, it's great sounding stuff.  My personal take is that it is in the high resolution and transparency camp and it's all a matter of taste in this hobby. 

McIntosh MA6900.  Or any from MA6500 and up.  Or Mac pre and power amp. In that price range you have your cake and still have money left over for dinner.

+1 for the odysseys. The Candela hybrid pre is very smooth and detailed and a pair of Khartago Extreme monoblocks will still keep within your budget. Factory direct and extremely clean/ solid build have them playing way over their price point. 

Also Klaus and the guys are incredibly accessible and helpful; great product support.  Even if your not the 1st owner. 

Lou