Help building first tube system.

How tall are the ceilings? $20 K deserves some travel to a metro area with a few dealers to get an idea on speakers FIRST.

Naim Uniti Core music server $3,000, Audio Mirror DAC $2,500, Manley Jumbo Shrimp preamp $4,600, ATC SCM20ASL Pro mk2 $5,500.  Balance for ICs, PCs, stands, etc.  I believe the Naim doubles as a network player.  Speakers are active, so no amp needed.

This system would be terrifyingly good.  Obviously, everything here is at full retail.  Best of luck building your dream.

That system leaves $4600 for 4 power cords, 4 interconnects, and 1 pr speaker cables. That's an average of only $500 each, with nothing left over for Cones or even any room treatment. The only thing terrifying is the lack of awareness of the importance of everything left out.

For a first system in a small room you might consider something like a Decaware amp and Omega speakers or other high efficiency speaker. For sources just do a little research on CD players, streamers, dacs as there are a lot of them. I use a fairly inexpensive NAD CD player connected to a Benchmark DAC3B and a Node2i connected to the same. Ignore the nonsense about magic mats, fuses, contact pastes and other dubious tweaks and stick to the main components. Once you're  done that reasearch room treatments  and speaker positioning and how it can offer you best sound improvement.  You also don’t need to spend a fortune on wires some research there will go a long way too. Good luck.

Hi Walstib, I think Tomic has it right. Start with the speakers. You really have to go listen. Would you buy a car without looking and driving first?
The speakers will 95% determine the sound of the system. Stand mounts are fine but you may want to consider subwoofers with them as none of them go very low. Everything else? I think build quality and durability are of first importance and I would stick with well established companies with good reputations like Audio Research, Macintosh, Atma Sphere and Manley. You should probably spend 10 K on speakers and 10 K on everything else.

Mike