Ideas for separates around $1500???

See,you saved yourself a lot of unneccesary spending.I would say that's a good thing.

Tholt, uhumm, "nobody thought of that"?

whoops -- missed your cable comment. I believe Unsound is the winner here.

Forgive me -- "fully balanced and/or with low input senstivity" is somewhat greek to me. What does that mean? What kind of equipment should I be considering?

Fully balanced is also refered to differentially balanced gear. Balanced gear is the standard used for pro equipment, and inherently rejects outside noise, especially for longer runs. Balanced gear uses XLR connectors instead of RCA's. Not all XLR connectors are part of truly balanced gear, even in that case they might help in your situation, though purists might object to an additional conversion process.
Gear with a low input sensitivity will require a higher input voltage to provide maximum out-put. As such they are less likely to amplify external noise. In the past most European gear was highly sensitive while American and Japanese gear were less sensitive.
In pro gear the balanced connections conform to a standard. In consumer geat their is less conformity.