Best $8000 stereo system- used

It would be quite helpful if you mentioned the type of music you listen to, how big your room is, and what type of sound you hope to acheive. Without that information, there are too many possibilities to offer.

An all Quad system would be really good, 988 speakers, 99 pre, 909 power and 99 CDP IMHO

Since my local audio buddies, Seth and Phil, have chimed in, I will add my two cents. Phil has a VERY good system that easily meets your budget.

His system is: Plinius 8200 MkII integrated, Sony 999(?) CD player, Jean-Marie Reynaud speakers, Audience Au24 interconnect and JM-Reynaud speaker cables.

At your budget, you could (upgrade?) some componants. There are some JM-Reynaud Offrandes listed...depending on room size; maybe the Plinius 9200 integrated.

S7horton is right, but this has been my recipe:

$1500 Speakers - The Apogee Scintilla (glorious, but very hard to find)

$1500 Aleph P pre amp with remote

$2000 Acoustic Reality digital amp eAR2 (used, hard to find)

$139 Liteon 2001 DVDROM, LINUX System based wonder player (not sold in US anymore, because of the illegal things you can do with it)

0$ cables and interconnects. Throw aways and gifts

That is a 5k system. It is real.

Having to buy the eAR amp new would bring the total cost closer to 7k. That would leave 1k for wires in case you don't have generous friends.

For a smaller room, I would get the Apogee Stage, Acoustic Reality 100 watt Enigma, Phillips 963 rebuild by Acoustic Reality, and their preamp too.

That would give you a stunning system for 4k and it is relatively easy to put together.