About to start a beginning audiophile set-up

[bigshot]

Unbelievable. I can't believe the totally useless advice some people are giving in this thread.

It's perfectly possible to put together a pretty doggone good sounding system for $2000. I would advise the poster to listen to Spiderx in post 8. That is solid advice.

See ya
Steve

[silverrain]

Here's one of my rigs -- it meets your prices, and sounds good to boot.
And maximum versatility, too.
Prices depend on where you find the items.

Denon W1500 two-tray HDCD player /recorder -- around $500 - $600 -- plays and records HDCD (and regular CD too of course) with very good DAC in it -- it also has a headphone jack with a volume control, and has very good sound quality -- which means you don not need a headphone amp until later, when your budget allows you to go in that direction.

Sennheiser HD650 headphone -- always sound decent, and sounds good right out of the Deneon headphone jack. An amp later, would allow you to get even better sound out of these cans, even though they sound great right out of the Denon.

This will get you very good sound from a very low (relatively) price, for a starter audiophile set-up.

If you want to add speakers or other upgrades, the Denon will still be a decent source player, with the added advantage that you can compile your own "best of" CD's from regular and HDCD CD's, using the second "recording" tray on the unit.

The HDCD is not always available on many of the more-expensive CD players, and the SQ of these is really nice. There are many sources of them listed in the music forum here -- I have many of them myself, and can really hear the SQ improvement over regular CD's.
All this for a bargain price.