new audiophile education

Dan_ed speaks good advice. I think the only thing to add is "listen to your ears and don't try to please someone else's ears" Freinds and salesmen seem to only clutter the terrain. Make yourself happy, you will spend the majority of your time listening by yourself. Find a dealer that wants a long term customer and will work with you on trying differents things. A good dealer will explain the why's and why not's of different configurations. And most importantly remember we "audio-folk" are never happy and always eveloving our systems. Welcome to our little obsession.

Obsession you called it exactly. The problem i face, only one audio store to hear components, they have a limited brand selection. Jolida, mcintosh, B&W. and it ends there.

The gon has opened a whole new world, especially when $$ are limited.

Dvdgreco-

I sent you some tube links a while ago, did you get a chance to look at them ?

Hi Dvdgreco

Those 3 brands could be all that you need. They would be for me. Granted ones wallet will be a lot lighter. That is great you can audition them. Buying, selling and trading online you can't always audition and if the sound doesn't fit it can cause money loss plus the inconvenience of re-selling. Wait till you start selling your gear and get nitpicked and lowballed. You were the 3rd owner I'm going to offer you even less. You list at a fair market value you still get lowballed by 60% off of your listing. Some people make it no fun at all.

McIntosh makes great quality amps that last for years and retain value. Jolida (.com or .net) components look to be solid and people can't stop raving about the JD9 phono preamp recently. As for B&W I've heard the 683 speaker line and they sound superb and that is only the entry line. The others might be better.

Well good luck in your search and I hope it isn't bumpy.

Man, you have to test different equipment and keep reading to learn more. There's a lot to learn on the audio world.