Need Help Starting from Scratch

Definitely audition speakers yourself! That is the most important choice. Once you choose speakers that you like, you can seek advice on what amplifier mates best with those speakers, etc. Choose speakers that are appropriate to your room size (likely bookshelf size) and musical tastes (they should be able to rock, but have good midrange presentation). Then go from there. In my mind, there are some big bang/for/buck products, including the Odysey Stratos amplifier, maybe the Music Streamer, perhaps the Lightspeed Preamp (I've never heard it, but check out the agon thread), the ERA bookshelf speakers). Let us know what you come up with.

I think active speakers are a good option for you. It solves a huge problem, which is finding amplification that matches your speakers well. That can be tough. Active speakers have many advantages, and if you do some research, you might just go that way. For instance, the bass driver will use a class D amp, and the mid/tweeter will use class A/B, and they only get the signal they can play. Can't do that easily with passive speakers.

I think the iDecco is a great choice as it has a wonderful DAC, switchable tube preamp, and the digital iPod dock allows for pure digital to the DAC without the problems of noise and jitter from the PC. You can find them on here new for $800.

For active speakers, check out vanns dot com, and look at the Klipsch XF48. This is their $2,500 floor standing active speaker...and they are on sale for $800 a pair. Free shipping even. :-)

That's $1,600 for one hell of a system. You can always add a sub too if needed. Make your own Cat5 speaker cables, and get some decent power cables...lovely.

I'm going to use them for my winter system, running off a Roth MC4 tube iPod Dock. Get the warmth of tubes, and the integrated power of solid state. Last winter I used this with Mirage OMD-5 satellites and a Mirage Prestige S8 sub...sounded amazing.

Hope that helps some. :-)

You're getting some great advice so far from what I can tell.

The only potential advantage to the Elite Reciever would be that the cost might allow you to push more of the current budget towards other items and then you could upgrade to a better 2-channel amplifier at a later date. It does have a pure audio mode that shuts down the unnecessary circuitry (my CD player shuts all digital circuits off including the front panel display) so it's almost a 2 channel amplifier and I'd suspect that you'd be very happy with it's sound, maybe not.

It also depends on if you're thinking that this is your one chance to get your system or if you think it's the beginning of a journey. I recently replaced just about everything, but am not done for a long time when it comes to components.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the other suggestions.

Those klipsch speakers are a complete steal. It may make me change my plans and go with active speakers. Which leads me to my next point

I do believe this is the start of my journey. With that being said, I would like to have something that I can be very happy with for a while. I want maybe one or two components that could possibly not be needed to upgrade. The active speakers leave me little option for that. I would have to sell those and get all new. Not necessarily a bad thing with those klipsch speakers. They may last for an extremely long time and should have a good resell value since I got them for so cheap. Which leads me to my next point

Ahhh decisions... Thanks for everyone's input though. I know have all the information to make a wise decision. Theres are many roads and now I just need to decide which would be best for me.

$700 on the speakers paired with a good Denon or Oryko receiver would be a good start. the receivers will have docks.