help me build a cheap second system

You want cheap good sound? Okay, here goes:

Sherwood 7100 receiver. Available in thrift stores (I paid $20.00 for mine). You can pick these up on Ebay for 50 bucks or so. If you like tube sound get the 7100. If you prefer solid state get the 7100A.

Sharp CD player. Available in thrift stores or Ebay. Another sleeper. No remote. Just great sound ... for CD that is.

Speakers: A set of NON-POWERED Audio Engine speakers. Either the Two's or the Fives.

Thanks all for the responses, keep em coming!

Response? Don't go with TT. Is too difficult. Snap, crackle,pop? adjusting pick-up, tracking force, fighting dust, cleaning vinyl? You don't want to go there.

I'd be very tempted to do something along the following lines:

Magnepan MMG at $600/pr
SVS Dual 12" sealed subwoofers at $1000/pr
Onkyo PRSC 5509 (recently discontinued, but still available new in box) pre-pro at +/- $2000

That's half your budget. Just add a reasonably powerful amp and source(s) of your choice with the other half.

IMO a pair of MMGs plus a pair of high quality subs integrated via Audyssey xt32 gets you a ridiculously high quality, full range speaker system for the $. If planars are an issue for you , you could also look at some other main speakers. I use Ohms (as well as MMGs) in a similar set-up to wonderful effect, but that's another $1k or so out of pocket. To date, I've not found anything nearly as impressive from the upper bass on up as the little Maggies at anything close to their price. Of course, everyone's MMV on that point.

BTW, the Onkyo is an excellent piece, too. The internal DACs are very good and it even includes a decent phono section. I replaced preamps from ARC and Joule with a 5509 several years ago and haven't looked back. There may be other xt32 empowered front-ends out there these days worth checking out in place of the Onkyo, but I haven't personally heard one so I won't comment.

Just one more way you might think about going.

Marty

Since your accustomed with great transparency and dynamics(TAD) the ATC SCM-19v2 is your speaker. At $4300(retail) it does take up a huge chunk of the $7k limit. There are many used options to keep this around $7K, here are a few. 1-NAD 375BEE/565BEE, 2-Yamaha A-S2000/CD-S2000, 3-Denon DRA-CX3/DCD-CX3. The Denon set up is the most cost effective, is 75w/ch enough to drive the ATC? It's claimed it can drive a B&W 802 Diamond! With the NAD you have the most power and a great budget player. The Yamaha S2000 series would probably push you over the $7k budget but your getting refinement and build quality over the NAD gear. The Denon CX3 series is also very well made but the mid-size components might be a turn off. With cables I would look at Signal Cable-Silver Resolution. At 35lbs the SCM-19 needs a quality stand which you could find used. FWIW a used SCM-19(NOT v2) model could be had for < half the current model. But from everything I have heard(read) the new tweeter and cabinet justify the cost. Since ATC does not update very often you should have a current model for at least another 5 years.