How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

Kraz, I do this... Because I've been there and done that. A modest budget and so many choices. Oh my!!!
However, what makes you happy is the number one criteria.
But in my humble opinion I don't think you can go wrong with the following. Remember everyone has an opinion and this is mine...

Speakers first. I've had a bunch There's some good used speakers to be had at very reasonable prices. (Spendors 1/2 are nice) two grand with stands - used.
Consider the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CD player. At $770 (new) fully tweaked it's a true sleeper. (the garbage in garbage out therory in effect)
Speaker cable at say six bucks a foot and another eighty bucks for bananas. So for two twelve foot biwire cables and bananas that's $224.
CD player cables say $300
You're at (we'll round up) $3,500 dollars.
Now the question is what $1,500 dollar integrated amp to buy? You can pick up say a Creek 5350 or McIntosh MA6450 and have a system of you'll be proud and your friends envious.

I have spent 2 hours reading all the threads and appreciate all the advices and possible systems for $5K. I am also looking for a system for about $5K. Now is it possible for
the audiophiles out there to put together ... like a Chinese
Restaurant menu of : choice 1, choice 2, and choice 3 and all within the $5K budget.
Lazy Listener of good music.
zippy

Hey there...

I can just share my experience. While a friend was auditioning speakers, we heard Martin Logan electrostatics. I couldn't believe the sound. Mids and highs so full and clear. Especially voices... I fell in love, and a couple years later, bought the Aerius i model. At the time, they were 2,300. I got an NAD integrated amp and some MIT4 cables to go with them, and used my mini CD player for a source! Total cost was about 3,000.

Fast forward a couple years, and I was unhappy with how my speakers were sounding. I got a CD changer from Sherwood Newcastle (like 300), and finally upgraded the amp to a VTL IT 85 (another 2,500). I'm still using the MIT cables, but am planning to upgrade. (my speakers are not that sensitive, but the VTL powers them fine!)

My system, without great cables or a great CD player is sounding REALLY great with the upgrade in power supply. I guess I'm lucky, I have an apartment that is the right size for my Aerius... at least I think it must be the right size, because these babies SING so BEAUTIFULLY. i mean, goosebumps up and down my spine.

I'm hoping an upgrade in CD player yields another great improvement. We'll see.

What I learned was, speakers were real important, but so was my power supply. The source, we'll see how important it is... I mean, I may be in for another surprise. But right now, my system sounds really excellent.

My advice, find a good matching pair of speakers with an integrated amp...

i realized that the maximum i will EVER spend on speakers is $9000 and this would certainly be Sennheizer Orpheus earspeaker system that no floor or monitor speaker i've heard so far can beat. after that the upgrades will only affect sources and preamp.

$1500 for speaker, $2250 for amplifications, $1250 for CDP. Use off the shelf non-audiophile cable and lamp cord for speaker cable for now and upgrade those later.