Audiophile newbie


I'm a mid-twenties yuppie. I love good sound, but I'm also not reckless with money. What are some basics I should know about when in comes to audio set-up (pre-amps, amps, speakers). I actually don't understand what purpose a pre-amp serves.

Here are a couple straight-up questions:
What does a pre-amp do?
What are the concerns to consider when choosing cables?
What are the best "bang-for-your-buck" brands? (ifi, Arcam, Vanatoo?)
128x128jwilsco
I have a NAD M55 Cd player. Love it.
I will note here a thread you might find informative.
Tekton Lore vs Zu Omen.
I have a Zu Omen paired with a Peachtree Audio Decco 65. For the money it will blow your socks off. Bought it for the living room system and makes me think about cashing in my big system.
Audition and learn the functions and types of different equipment options.
Try to find a good dealer who might be able to get you into used/demo gear and provide valuable asssistance.
Utilize the collective wisdom in the online audio forums.
Buy used gear to stretch your dollar but be careful.
If you want to skip to most fun and satisfying sound, seek vinyl playback with tube gear.
yep, bet an integrated nad amp on amazon or similar with at least 60 wpc. get an oppo universal disc player that will allow you to play any disc available, except hd cd for some reason, ( maybe they fixed that), and a pair of nice $500 2 way bookshelf speakers and a 400-1000$ powered sub. buy some gold banana pin connecters with quick snap features and make your own cables with some high quality monster cable from best buy cut to your length. simple inexpensive starter set will hopefully satisfy you for yrs. THERE! solid advice that i will regret having given in ten minutes. then in 5 yrs switch to tubes and buy a turntable and dac and costly cables and pre amp and mono blocks and wilson watt puppies and room treatments and line conditioners and sit there in the dark all alone and listen to bach fugues and sip bordeaux and listen for defects in a state of perpetual paranoia and angst.
Blue Jeans cables, some sort of music server so you have the option of streaming music (I wouldn't buy a cd player, and not a turntable either), look at used gear (NAD, if you have a little more $ look at McCormack amps, Conrad Johnson, Classe,).

ZU Speakers, Tekton Speakers (very efficient so these play loud with less watts; 80 watts should be plenty.

You'll get sound advice here. If you want the easy road, give us your budget, room size and decore (wood, glass, etc), type of music you're after and whats most important to you... Tone, imaging, dynamics..??