Words From the Wise

First of all...RUN!!! Get out of this hobby ASAP! It will leave you bewildered, obsessed and broke. Otherwise it is really cool! Seriously, my advice is as follows:

1. Trust your own ears. Never let anyone intimidate your opinion by making you feel like you "should" have heard something.

2. Enjoy the music. If you let it, this hobby will turn you into a tech-oriented buff that only plays test CDs. The audio system is secondary to the music..always.

3. Impress yourself. It is nice to impress your friends, but, this can lead to purchases that don't suit you the best. It does not have to CRANK so the neigborhood can hear it to be impressive. In general, those systems aren't.

4. If you are into LPs and turntables, then the front end is the most important. Otherwise, the speaker/room and speaker/amp interfaces are the most important.

5. I like tubes. It is just my preference. I like sensitive speakers, even before tubes. You must find what you like and then forget the upgrade path for a while.

Davey Crockett said, "There ain't no ticks like poly-ticks, bloodsuckers all!"

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1) Proper speaker placement supplemented by acoustic room treatments patiently and accurately applied is the single most important component in your system. Period. More than which speakers, which source components , or what amp/ pre-amp combination.
2) Really clean, powerful available power into your system is usually overlooked until most people have some serious bucks into most of the other "stuff". This is a mistake. Provide dedicated power if possible, or at least seriously conditioned/cleaned up electricity available for your equipment. The difference is startling.
3) Tubes just sound more natural than solid state and should be in either your pre-amp or power amp (preferably both), or in a nice tubed integrated [at least] (if that's your path at the time) to really appreciate how uncanny a home system can sound.
4) "Reasonably good" speakers and "reasonably good" signal sources will sound absolutely outstanding (way better than you would have ever believed possible) if you make sure you've done #1,#2,#3 above first... ("Really good or better" speakers/signal sources will absolutely blow you away if.... you you've done #1,#2,#3 above first...).
5) Approach the hobby with more respect than you would an addiction ("Upgrade-itis") where you'll find yourself saving up again and again for your next purchase. This I know only too well. Try to enjoy each step of the way and linger there as long as you can.
(Final comment) Sitting in the listening chair late at night...when all the synergy of your system aligns like the planets in the sky... is like no other connection you'll ever know... it's called "Bliss".

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If it sounds too good to be true, It's because you spent $$$$$
on a bunch of Tefon caps. God bless Tefon.