Newbie help - Building a system from scratch

You should totally get the Double Impacts. Sound quality uber alles, and even the wife will eventually be won over with how good her favorite music sounds. Not kidding. Tekton has it down. Cover them up with dust covers if you must. 

But if not then like me and Mike both said you need more efficient speakers. Heresys will be fine. They won't have as great bass as DIs but even DIs will benefit from a DBA and that will be on your upgrade list but at $3k you can put it off for now. 

I agree with yogiboy its better to have a great turntable but that is one where I think you are much better off to start with something decent and learn. Because there's a lot going on with a turntable, a whole bunch of things make a huge difference and it just takes time and experience to know. There's only so much you can learn reading blog posts and reviews. Turntables and tone arms more than any other component you actually touch and handle the darn things and look at them up close and its really nice when you actually like all that stuff. This is something very hard to appreciate until you've been doing it a while. All of which is why I think its fine to start with something simple like the Rega.  

Again there is no right or wrong just a lot of different options with each one offering a different set of pros and cons.

The best advice I can give is not to follow the recommendations on one individual on this site, but to look for a measure of consensus.  Being audiophiles, there will never be anything approaching absolute consensus, of course.
That being said, glupson is steering you in the right direction.  I believe Crutchfield, Audio Advisor and Music Direct all have pretty generous return policies.  Try before you buy.  They're *your* ears.

In addition to the idea of ordering speakers you can return, look to see whether there are any local audiophile societies or groups in your area, and then go listen to as many different systems as possible, before you start ordering speakers you might then want to return.  Similarly, if you have established friends who are also audiophiles, go and listen.  When you do listen, consider the ancillary equipment and the room you're in.  Is it like yours in size, shape, window area, curtains or lack thereof, floor covering or lack thereof?  All that stuff counts big time.

Your room size/description and and where you can realistically place the speakers would help a lot...

Surprised anyone offered REAL suggestions (not really) sans this basic/important info.

DeKay

dekay, I mentioned the very same issues related to the room, just one post above yours. We agree.