Thanks to Audiogon and friends


Please be easy as I'm a nubile/novice/non-audiophile. Having said, I thought that I was the cat's meow. Friends and associates agreed. Now, please don't laugh. I have a HT/Surround system from a "high profile" manufacturer(it starts with B) that I, uneducated, thought was ideal. I was using the system for both HT and stereo audio. I thought it was great until I visited an old friend that had Rega gear. Suffice to say, he and Audiogon have awakened me. My surround system is great for "club sound" when I have a gathering, but is inferior when it comes to true music. I am begining to build a system with a small budget(I've started with a Cambridge Integrated). Needless to say, even wth a low budget amp, the difference is astonishing. Audiogon has been a great resource. Any further insight would be helpful. Please bare in mind that I have a limited budget. Thanks, audiogon members.
auditory
Thanks for the responses. Your comments have given me a good basis for further research.
The best advice I can give for a limited budget is to build your own speakers. This can be done by first auditioning all of the best speakers on Audiogon and identifying the sound of your favorite. You then duplicate this sound by experimenting with crossovers and drivers.
Orpheus10: was that really helpful? A new member asks for honest advice and you provide him nothing in return but cynicsm. Humor is fine but that wasn't even funny.

Why all the cynicsm? It must be viral.
That was not cynicsm. That is how I built the speakers I am Listning to. After discovering that Theils were my favorite, I chose drivers for a 3 way and engaged an engineer to design the crossover. They create a holographic soundstage. I simply hear music emanating from points in space.
Our new fellow audiophile is just discovering what Audiogon is all about. Suggesting that he start out by building his own speakers might sound pretty heavy duty to a lot of people just getting into great hifi. It is a great idea though.
I think he might be looking for the biggest bang for his initial investment. Maybe finding out what his next component purchase should be will lead to a pretty interesting thread that would be of interest to people like me and a few more of us who are still pretty new around here.
I suggested what I consider a great first component (Valab non oversampling dac) , but I really would like to hear other choices for his next purchase.