The most important word of advise?

How about this: Observe the amount of time and energy you spend listening to the system and demand of yourself that an equal or greater degree of concentration be dedicated to listening and thinking about music. No conpromises!

Kurt_tank: Oops. As soon as I read your "First, . ." I knew. Thanks, I'll take your advice, and be more careful next time. Let others be advised to do the same.

What kind of listening do you do?

If you can only squeeze in an hour or two after work, you might want a system that is a little flashy and hyped.
By the time listening fatigue sets in, you're session will be done.

If you spend hours-on-end during the weekend, go for the neutral sound.

Also, if you do mostly low-level listening, make sure your speakers sound good at low levels (Thiel 1.6 does this very well).

Every component of every system is directly or indirectly susceptible to and greatly affected by dirty AC coming in from the street and uncontrolled resonance energy. Hence, I would suggest building your system around the best performing line conditioners and racking system you can find.

Both elements are by far the most misunderstood and least appreciated and are absolutely foundational to any system simply because you will never hear your system's true potential without these two items properly addressed. Regardless of what one currently owns.

-IMO

Build your system around speakers that rock your socks; match the speakers carefully with an amplifier. This is critical.

After that, buy components which please your ears not some reviewer, magazine, retailer, or thread poster.