Help: ISO Beginner full setup for excellent sound on $2000 max budget

Do you have any suggestions for what you’d spend $ on, what you think might sound good if you went over to a friend’s house who had some cash to spend that wants to become a low-level audiophile?

Best advice I can give, quality beats quantity. Across the board. I’ll use the tube amp and speakers you like for example so you understand just how deep this goes.
Those speakers use one full range driver. Too many inexperienced audiophiles look at that and say no bass. I look at that and say one driver. One driver means all the driver budget went into that one driver. They only had to cut one hole. There’s no crossover network. Without knowing anything else I can tell you that speaker probably sounds pretty damn good for the money. It probably won’t play real loud, or go real deep. But what it does do it will do mesmerizingly good. You will sit and sink into the music and forget all about what it doesn’t do because it does what it does do so well.

Same goes for that amp. Look at the Six Moons review. Look at what’s inside that amp. You don’t know this stuff but I do. Its enough for you to know there’s hardly any parts. Very few parts means more money per part. This goes right down to the inputs. At this price range every dollar spent on an RCA is a dollar not spent where it will impact the sound, which is caps and resistors and transformers. There’s even better reasons to favor a nice little integrated like this and I will let you in on it but not yet too soon.

Normally I say what I said at first, divide the budget evenly. That was from years of experience. Recently some new developments have changed things a bit. Its still super important to attend to every detail. In the past that meant buying quality power cord, interconnect and speaker cables. Now though there is another way to get that same performance from cheap budget wire. It has the advantage of making your whole system sound embarrassingly good. Your friend will be envious, and guaranteed never figure out what you did unless you tell him. You will be surprised to find your modest system sounds better than systems that cost many times what you paid.

Not kidding. Don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. Look at my system. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367
Let me know if you’re still interested.

@millercarbon, I saw your system and read some comments folks have left about you. You seem like the exact person I want to talk to about this. I'm in your world. Budget sucks, but I'm transitioning into a new career and have to go back to school again so I'm wanting something that I can listen to when I'm studying in my living room, or studying in my bedroom. I'm wanting the warmest, most inviting sound in my living room with that budget. I understand the importance of investing in quality, and I want to do that as best I can within the parameters I'm bound by. I'll post some of my favorite songs below to give you a sense of the music style I listen to on a regular basis.

Maybe that speaker and amp might be what I should invest in. The buddy who has this setup listens to very similar music to me.

In an ideal world, I would like a set up that can pull out depth in songs like these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy8cklFZ3sA

Given the music you like and the sound you’re looking for, I’d get the Unison Research Unico Hybrid integrated available here for $900, a nice pair of Nola Boxers on US AudioMart for $700, and an Audio Technica Carbon VTA turntable available at Massdrop for $350. For wires I’d get them through Acoustic BBQ made by member @grannyring.  For speaker stands I’d get the 24” Glass Floor Speaker Stands ($62) or the Monolith stands ($55) from Monoprice depending on your taste — both are sand fillable (and you should), and I’d guess the Monolith would yield marginally better sound if you’re on the fence.  The turntable is initially the biggest bottleneck of this system, but it’s still decent enough to get you going and has the advantages of coming with a cartridge and built-in phono preamp. Plus the ‘table has a good enough foundation and potential that it can be upgraded later as budget allows to significantly increase performance with a better cartridge and external phono pre. And it looks great too, as do the speakers and amp. I think you’d be thrilled with this system given your stated tastes and requirements.

BTW, ditch the notion of a separate amp and preamp at this budget level — an integrated is absolutely the way to go. And I’d also avoid a tube amp if as you say you don’t want to jump in head first and want something simple that you can play every day. The Unico has a couple small tubes in the input section so they won’t need to be changed very often and shouldn’t be very expensive, yet you’ll still get a good dose of that inviting “tube magic” I think you’re looking for — and the Nolas thrive on tubes as well. This whole shebang may end up costing a little more than $2k considering shipping, cables, and stands (depending somewhat on your negotiating skills), but I think you’ll be happy to stretch a little once the music starts playing. Hope this helps, and best of luck in your quest!

@millercarbon, I saw your system and read some comments folks have left about you. You seem like the exact person I want to talk to about this. I’m in your world. Budget sucks, but I’m transitioning into a new career and have to go back to school again so I’m wanting something that I can listen to when I’m studying in my living room, or studying in my bedroom. I’m wanting the warmest, most inviting sound in my living room with that budget. I understand the importance of investing in quality, and I want to do that as best I can within the parameters I’m bound by. I’ll post some of my favorite songs below to give you a sense of the music style I listen to on a regular basis.

Maybe that speaker and amp might be what I should invest in. The buddy who has this setup listens to very similar music to me.

All good details to know. What I would advise for "one and done" is quite a bit different than in your case, which seems to me more like "get me started and then..."

I listened to that music, which I never heard before, and between that and the fact your buddy has this (and I presume you’ve heard it and like it as well) then that argues pretty strong in my book for, basically, going with what works. No need to reinvent the wheel.

We can however make it a whole lot better. You will in the process leapfrog from learning from your friend to teaching him something new.

That amp and those speakers will be wonderful with that kind of music. You will just have to figure out whatever turntable/cartridge/phono stage you can get with the remaining budget. But those are the two choices. Behind Door #1 you stretch and spend more on the amp and speakers. Behind Door #2 you stretch and spend more on the source. Either way will get you good sound.

The tie breaker, two really, are cartridges wear out but speakers last almost forever and amps nearly as long. The other tie breaker is you know what you like. Could be really hard if ever you can find a turntable/phono stage you can say the same about.

Also turntables are a whole subject unto themselves. What you would get now compared to what you will want after living with one a while and learning a lot are two completely different things. This amp and speakers are plenty good enough for you to be able to have your next big move be to a foundation type table. Kind of like what I did. If you saw my system 15 years ago when that table was built, completely different. So make the right choice it can bring smiles and pride and joy for many years to come.

I will PM to give you some valuable info that is not for the time being able to be shared on-line.

You might be better served skipping tubes and vinyl and just going with an all in one solution like the Kef LS50 Wireless. Great looks and sonics. Built in amps tailored to their drivers. No preamp needed or turntable just stream right to the speakers.
Cheap tube amps tend to suck and I don’t think the one you chose is even in production anymore. Plus, you’ll need additional funds for good tubes.

Another option if you really want tubes is to again skip the vinyl and go digital with something like a Schiit saga pre, vidar power amp, and modi dac. That will leave you some dough for nice speakers and all the cabling you need. Don’t forget, if you go standmounts you’ll need stands too. Though not beautiful, Tekton speakers are high value as are Elacs. The new Elac Debut Reference are pretty slick looking and sound great too. Good luck!