Being given 2 custom systems but what to ask for?

I owuld definitely stay away from tube gear - you do have to replace tubes every so often, and it's not like 40 years ago when you could run down to a local store and plug the suspect tubes in to a tube tester. Sometimes, when a tube blows, it damages resistors in the amp, requireing a repair. For great sound, simple plug ang play reliability, and customer support, I would highly recommend Pass Labs amplifiers and pre-amps. Of the speakers listed, I like vandersteen adn Magnepan, although the planar speakers Magnepan & Quad) can be tricky to get to sound right due to the way the interact with room acoustics. Of the magnepans I have heard, I liked the 1.6QRs better than a couple of the more expensive models. To my ears, the more expensive ones had exaggerated cymbal sounds.

There is a site called the martinlogan owners club that you can pull up pictures of many owners systems to get some idea both 2-channel and surround.
It is specific to that brand but may give you some ideas anyway.

Best of luck,
Bob

Wow! What city are you in?
Budget a professional installer into the list of gear. If you are a "newbie" this is just as important as picking the right gear.
Without seeing the rooms that these will be in, it is tough to recommend the right stuff. Some speakers sound amazing but only in the right room, ie big Martin Logans are great but not in a 10 x 12 room.
I think simplicity and automation should be priorities. No tubes, a professional installation, in wall cabling would be nice but is pricey.
You need to consider how some of this will look in your house. Do you want huge speakers? My family would hate to see B&W 801's in our living room even though I'd love to have them in there.
FIND A DEALER TO HELP. PAY A VERY HIGH END SHOP TO COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND WORK IT OUT WITH YOU. Yes, you will be spending some of your own cash here but a few hundred is nothing in light of the massive investment. Who knows, the dealer may even refund the fee if they get the business...they should.

I think the McIntosh advice is good. Trying to do a component matching across multiple brands is time-consuming and requires time and experience that aren't available.

McIntosh stuff sounds great and it's all matched. For cables, you could stick with all Transparent, AudioQuest, Kimber, or Analysis Plus.

Analysis Plus would probably give you the most accurate, linear performance for the money, especially if you don't have a lot of time to mess around.

Another matched-system vendor is Naim. That's what jazz bassist Charlie Haden uses. He went with all Naim to avoid the thrash of audiophilia, and has a consultant keep his system up to date.

Carrie- If you are a classical musician I am thinking that you will want a tube system in the mix at the mid and upper end of your price points, but not one that is dependent on NOS tubes, and one that has excellent customer support. One option then that comes to mind would be Atma-sphere. Their amps and pre-amps work very well together. The owner's support is legendary and his products are designed to work well w readily available current production tubes. Another option would be VAC; maybe one of their integrated amps would cut down on the complexity. For a turntable, I would recommend a product that you can find a local dealer for, who would come in and set it up, since that is a critical part of maximizing LP playback quality. I agree about perhaps skipping cassette as there really is no-one out there selling quality products any more. Speakers are a bit problematic in that there is a wider variety of "house sound" in speakers than elsewheres. Tell us your room size, whether it would be a dedicated room and sonic priorities and then we can start building from there.