Start with a good whole bean, I normally get my coffee from Costa Rica, Venezuela and other South American countries. If you don’t travel, which by the way you’d be shocked how inexpensive you can get very good whole coffee beans for, there are numerous online sellers (for one example Britt Coffee) that ship right to your house at a premium, but still better than many store bought prices.
I grind my coffee fresh daily before brewing; IMHO this is a great step which improves the flavor and creates a very desirable aroma in the kitchen and almost throughout the house. I’m not sure of the exact detail, but pre-ground coffee stales 10 times faster than whole bean. For those that say it takes too much time, I really don’t think so, the brewing process is actually longer and the results are well worth any amount of time. I use a ranchilio burr grinder which grinds the coffee beans at a consistent gauge or evenness, which translates to better extraction of the coffee oils that carry most of the flavor.
In addition to a fresh grind, it’s important to use high quality water, I don’t think you need to buy water, a good home filtation system at room temperature is best. Last step is a proper coffee to water ratio, the experts recommend between one and two tablespoons of ground coffee per six ounces (180 millilitres) of water at a brewing temperature of 200 °F (93 °C), but I say experiment and do what taste best to you, personally I like mine strong
BTW, I posted a picture of my coffee gear
here in the coffee gadgets thread.