Anyone else feel left out?

I've always promoted "bang for the buck" items, and I think that they can produce a very enjoyable system, when correctly matched.

I never had the money to play in the ultra high end priced products, so I have had to be very studious in choosing things that I could afford, and also was quite enterprising in doing mods and experiments that could bring the performance of my mid-priced items up a little bit higher on the scale.

You can get a very good result from reasonably priced products. Maybe not the "ultimate", but easily listenable, and musically enjoyable.

Proac Tabulette 2000 or Epos 14 $650-750
NHT Sub two or any nice sub $ 500-600
Rega Planet 2000 $ 600.00
Audio Research Ca50 intergrated or CJ 50 $ 1,200
Tubes are the way to go!
Thorens 125 with V15 $450
Musical Fidelity v3 Headphone amp $ 350.00
Senheizzer HD 600 with cardas $300.00
Kimber Hero or Monster m1000i cables 500.00
Monster OMC speaker cable $ 100.00

Upgrades to this system:
Linn LP12 $750-1600
Audio Research CD2 $1500.00 or Sony ES 777?

PS for an even cheaper system you can go vintage..
Luxman 1120 receiver $ 250.00
a/d/s 710's or 810's $250-450
an h/k cd player $ 100.00 with dual burr brown d/a converters. Some of these units had problems but many worked fine and sound unbeatable for the money.

PS save up for the tube monoblocks they sound awesome!

One of the nice things of this hobby (and wines also) is that the entry ticket is not as high as some other options out there. I do think that the price reference you gave us is good enough to start a very competent sound system and enjoy the music.

Options from Mission, Paradigm, Jolida, Naim, Rotel are just a few that just fit there and will give you many hours of enjoyment, and that without considering lots of people that is selling-buying-selling and leave there great oportunities to be explored.

One last world, try to not be "that in", place music at the first priority and you will be saving lots of cash.

Fernando

Probably 90% of the global adult population could only dream of having 10% of your budget available for something as frivolous as a stereo. No need to feel left out.
Good luck, I think with work you will be able to put together a killer system. My thoughts on a maximum bang for the buck system usually start out with a NAD integrated in the middle.

Many of us purchase equipment that is, strictly speaking, beyond our means. But if you pay a fair used price for a piece that is likely to hold it's value, your ultimate cost may be quite low. For example, I paid $1800 for my ($3000 retail) Cary SLI-80 used several years ago, and could probably still get $1600 for it. I did spend $100 on EL34 output tubes, just for fun. On the other hand I paid $2700 for used Silverline Sonatina II speakers ($4500 new retail), which I love, but now could probably get only $1800. But since I feel these are "long term keepers", my real expense IS the $2700! The Cary will probably stay as my primary all-tube source for a long time unless I go SET. But my friends know I've said that kind of thing before....

So it does depend on how you look at it: is your cost the money you spend, or, is it the combination of the depreciation hit you take while owning it, plus opportunity cost of capital, plus any transaction risk.

Digital depreciates much faster due to technology improvements. $10,000 for a DAC that will be worth $500 in three years? Ouch!

Art