$50k - $80k Budget…Opinions please.

Your budget is good to get a great sounding system. Given your circumstances I would recommend starting from scratch… forget what you used to like. Use all the experience you gained on sound quality and components and start over.

I would start auditioning systems… locally first, then maybe a couple trips. Go listen to a Wilson system, a Sonus Faber system, Audio research, B&W, Magico, Conrad Johnson, Roland, Boulder… Magnaplanar. Don’t worry about cost. Find what connects to you.

Then start thinking about what to buy… speakers first.. but you have the advantage of getting all synergistic components at one time.

I found that carefully chosen component at each level sounds better than the last… so a $80K system will sound very significantly better than a $40K system and not nearly as good as a $160K.

I recommend buying the best you can and do not spend much on cables and interconnects (I buy DHLabs as really good quality budget wire), wait about six months or a year until all is broken in and you know what your system sounds like and then start working on optimizing your system with wire. You can then really compare speaker cables first, then power cord (amp)… then interconnects and finally interconnects for all your components. At the end of this… two or three years you can have an incredible system carefully customized to your own tastes.

Up the budget to $200K, finance it, wait 12 months, then declare bankruptcy.

How someone spends their money is none of our business. Don't know why some people have to get on their soapbox :)

Anyways, I agree with the advice to find a good dealer and look for system synergy, instead of trying to piecemeal a system one component at a time. This is where good dealers are invaluable. Good luck!

I agree, how someone spend their money is none of our business. Investment is a never-ending cycle. If someone ask for 80k recommendation, should just give them that or not at all. 

I don't know anything about amps above 20k. But those dan'gostino amps look very nice. 

I've got some recommendations for you but I don't know if your budget can handle it so here goes the amplifier SIM audio north series 861 amplifier it's around $29,000 Canadian so I don't know how much they'll be charging for it in the US or their 860A ll which is also a superb amp and at around 20,000, same audio 850p preamp which is another 30,000 I believe, speakers you should try the monitor audio platinum 300 G3$18,000 US, very three-dimensional open airy spacious and natural sounding, cabling you should use the Neotech Sahara rectangular OCC single crystal wire and the interconnects not cheap but boy is it ever good, will beat anything OFC on the market at any price, for a separate dac I would try the Wyred4sound 10th anniversary dac$4,500 US but it beat up on dacs costing $15,000 and they give you a 30-day trial period if you don't like it send it back and you get all your money back. for transport I really can't give you any advice cuz I haven't really looked at transports in the last few years so I don't know what is good out there.