How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

That one is simple. Spend twice the amount that your
willing to disclose to your wife. You will flattly
have to lie about the ic's and speaker cable. Don't
even bother to mention about the power cords. Good luck

get an FM tuner, that is a lot of fun, I am shure if you get one you will like it and afterwards you will try to get a better one. I have the Magnum Dynalab MD100r and I listen to it every night, both classical music, Opera and talk-programs. Best regards, Antonio Machado.

People amaze me with their opinions. But here's mine for what it's worth. FIRST, figure out what type of music you like. Rock, R&B, pop, rap, clasical, jazz....THEN you can pick the best components for $5k. Generally I perfer the sound of a tube system (I have one now). But everyone is different....but the catch 22 is how do you know without listening to each?

You check my FB and if you want my opinion, you talk to me and tell me what type of music you like, your room size & detailed configuration and we'll go from there.

Regards,
Steve
214-236-5915

I wonder if Krazeeyk had made the decision and bought the system and is happy or not with it...
Initially, balanced spending is a good idea, but as your listening ability grows in the audiophile direction (which can be good or bad, depending upon whose point of view), you can grow dissatisfied with your system. If you're in this for the long haul, maybe out of the $5K budget, $3K should be spend on a used, very good source (CD player or 'table) so that you can stop worrying about the source for a long term. If the source is good, than it's only a matter of getting the downstream better.
$500 can be used to buy a used integrated amp (something from Rotel/NAD/Cambridge/older MF) and $700 for used speakers (B&W older DM or CDM series, CDM-1 maybe is in this range, or used Vandy's?), $600-750 for very good used speaker cables and $100-150 for used interconnect. A used $500 amp will be most likely single-ended only, and when you upgrade there's a chance you want to get a balanced system. In this case, initial investment in an expensive SE interconnect makes less sense. But you always need your speaker cables, no matter what speakers you use (unless you get a Meridian active speakers).
When budget allows, I would suggest to trade-up the electronis first to pre- and power-amp or very good integrated and speakers the last when you really have the dough to buy that super speaker you've been dreaming about. I guess my principle is buy something that you want to keep for a long, long time.

I wonder if Krazeeyk had made the decision and bought the system and is happy or not with it...
Initially, balanced spending is a good idea, but as your listening ability grows in the audiophile direction (which can be good or bad, depending upon whose point of view), you can grow dissatisfied with your system. If you're in this for the long haul, maybe out of the $5K budget, $3K should be spend on a used, very good source (CD player or 'table) so that you can stop worrying about the source for a long term. If the source is good, than it's only a matter of getting the downstream better.
$500 can be used to buy a used integrated amp (something from Rotel/NAD/Cambridge/older MF) and $700 for used speakers (B&W older DM or CDM series, CDM-1 maybe is in this range, or used Vandy's?), $600-750 for very good used speaker cables and $100-150 for used interconnect. A used $500 amp will be most likely single-ended only, and when you upgrade there's a chance you want to get a balanced system. In this case, initial investment in an expensive SE interconnect makes less sense. But you always need your speaker cables, no matter what speakers you use (unless you get a Meridian active speakers).
When budget allows, I would suggest to trade-up the electronis first to pre- and power-amp or very good integrated and speakers the last when you really have the dough to buy that super speaker you've been dreaming about. I guess my principle is buy something that you want to keep for a long, long time.