Your post will draw lots of attention with a title like that! :) Audio places are like Hair Club for Men, with too much testosterone and not enough female input. Sort of the way women would be excited to show a man how to decorate a living room, etc.
I agree with Paulowski in that if you're chasing higher end sound, then you need to save more. If you cave in too soon and buy, you'll end up with mid-fi sound and may get disappointed. Depends on the type of woman you are. If you are into techno stuff and want to flip equipment in search of something better sonically, then you'll jump in now and add $ as you go. If you just want beautiful Hi Fi sound and aren't interested in dealing beyond obtaining the system, then wait. If you are undisciplined and the money would be spent on clothing etc. then you'd better get the system now or you might never...
$500+ will never get you Hi Fi; you'll get mid-fi or vintage Hi Fi, which can be very good, but not up to standards of today, and can bring repair issues. The excellent thing is that you can attain well over 50% of the quality of authentic Hi Fi with such a reasonable budget! At your price point I would not go into tubes; stay with solid state equipment. Take the longest time looking for speakers, as they are what you will want to spend the most $ on. Maybe even up to half the money ($300 on speakers, $200 on integrated amp).
For my office the other month I purchased a used Parasound cd changer in beautiful condtion, and has very nice sound. Older Parasound, NAD, Rotel and Adcom equipment should give very decent sound and be relatively repair-free. At your price point you may want to consider a cdp as it will likely outshine your vinyl - at least until you can upgrade the system. I would begin with the speakers and integrated, as you have a turntable already. But, consider a used cdp later and it will open up a world of economical, excellent audio.
I suggest an integrated amp since it will mean less cabling to buy and get you the most bang for buck at your price point. You would do better to find an excellent pair of Monitors (bookshelf speakers) rather than a so-so pair of larger speakers.
Some speaker suggestions, all of which are decent quality and reasonably priced used: PSB, Paradigm, B&W, KEF, Klipsch, etc.
Regarding cabling; Start with whatever you can use, but with time put a bit of money into used interconnects and speaker cable. Don't worry about power cables...yet. Your components will likely not have detachable power cords anyway! :)
Go online and look up phrases like "budget speaker of the year" etc. and see what you find. Then look for them used.
Watch out for used items for sale without boxes and manuals. Often you are at risk in purchasing such eqipment, since you are at the mercy of the shipper's packaging skills, or lack thereof. If a remote control is important, don't forget to look for it in the ad.
An alternative way to go, IF you are COMMITTED to building a system, would be to load the purchase of the integrated first, with some super economical speakers, then work toward saving for new speakers. I kid you not, the lowly Best Buy Insignia speakers that have been raved about on Audio Asylum (do a search for Insignia speakers - I wrote the first review in the world on them!) would work - I think well under $100 and really decent sound for a starter speaker.
Finally, call dad and ask for money for Christmas, or take some of your rediculous amounts of clothing to a resale shop and convert it into audio eqipment! ;)
Bottom line: Something is really going to suffer badly in absolute audiophile terms. However, you can make a bold move toward Hi Fi with your $500. I would purchase from sellers here who have good feedback and reputations. And always, always ask for female discount! :)
Currently, there are two decent speakers for sale in your price range:
Warfedale Diamond 8.2's (just came up - they won't last!) and Paradigm Mini Monitors V4, either of which would sound decent and leave money for integrated.
