Buying equipment

Swarthy, based upon what you've told us, I would recommend the following:

1) Emotiva Fusion 8100 receiver: excellent sound quality, plenty of power, very easy for you to setup. And it also has multi-channel capability so that you could use it to drive a full surround sound system later when you move to AZ. Comes with 30 day in-home trial and 5 year warranty.

https://emotiva.com/products/receivers/fusion-8100

2) Oppo BDP-103 Universal player: this is a very well-regarded unit that will play *any* shiny disc available incl. CD, SACD, DVD-Audio, and Bluray. Oppo has the *best* customer service in the industry and they offer a 30 day in-home trial. Don't even think twice about this one.

http://oppodigital.com/

3) Tekton Designs speakers: very well regarded speakers at very reasonable prices. 60 day in-home trial. Look at the Lores and Pendragons. These speakers are very efficient, the receiver I recommended will play at concert levels with these speakers. http://www.tektondesign.com/index.html

Second choice: Gallo Classico speakers, particularly CL-4 or CL-3. These speakers have astonishingly good sound (their CDT3 tweeter is *marvelous*!!) and come with a 60 day in-home trial and Gallo will pay ALL of the costs - you risk $0.00!!
http://www.roundsound.com/classico/

4) Pro-Ject or Rega turntable: if you're considering a turntable, go with Pro-Ject or Rega. They both make excellent turntables for very reasonable money. Be sure to have a cartridge pre-installed so you don't have to fiddle with that (major PITA!!). I like the Ortofon cartridges - good sounding, excellent tracking carts that don't cost an arm and a leg.

http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?info=turntables
http://www.rega.co.uk/

That's about it. If you assemble a system using the components I recommended, I think you will be very happy indeed...

Here ya go, Resolution Audio Opus 21 system.

This little system will do a lot for you. All you need are speakers. It has a nice phono stage for your turntable as well as a built in dac for your computer audio. Nice headphone out also so you won't need that extra amp.

It was well reviewed on 6moons BTW.

I don't know the seller or how well priced this one is. I did not pay anywhere near this price for mine.

A number of manufacturers sell direct to the consumers and even allow for a generous in-home audition period. Zu, Tekton, etc come to mind. Also, as crazy as it may sound, Amazon sells some pretty good gear.

"It will play any shiny disc"

Thankya Mr. Wainwright now your talking my language:) All this alphabet soup has a long learning curve-and I am even ex-military!

I mentally check-out and start wondering what might be in the fridge when i read

"Upgrade the iDac to Asynchronous 24/192 with Peachtree's X1 USB to SPDIF Converter."

I am off to check out the systems you all have so very thoughtfully pointed me to. I really appreciate all the help everybody is giving me.

from resolution audio pdf:

"the opus21 only requires one power chord" Yes!

As I am beginning to learn about all the options and how to listen to and evaluate a system.

I am wondering what I am listening to/for.

Such as in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O2tG17ILwQ

To me it sounds shallow. that is less like a live performance-theatre stage and more like a modern movie theatre or art museum: