Audiophile newbie

Give some thoughts to your listening habits. Where in the room will you be listening from? Where will/can the speakers go? How far away from walls?

Get speakers that will work well in your room and sound good where you listen from. Different kinds of speakers disperse sound in different directions differently. Are you going to set up a sweet spot and stay in it? If so, there are many options. If not, you should consider speakers that disperse sound more and sound better from more locations. Omnidirectional speakers are worth considering if you want good sound from many listening locations in the room.

Also consider how loud you will listen and if speakers can deliver clean extended bass as needed. LArger rooms are usually more of a challenge and may cost more to do really well in terms of speakers and amp to match that can bring out the best possible. Smaller rooms are easier.

These things are most important to think about up front. THen you are better prepared top decide what will likely work best.

Audition as much as possible before buying. In home demos are best but dealer demos and audio shows are good tools.

Lastly, do not overpay. Consider buying used if you are comfortable with that. That will make it easier to tweak and change as needed until just right without taking a big financial hit.

Listen up. I will actually answer your question. I've owned dozens of high end components and listened to hundreds.

Buy an all NAD system. NAD makes electronics.

For speakers I would buy Monitor Audio RX6 or Silver6.

This will give you an entry level system that will provide amazing sound quality likely far exceeding anything you previously heard from a home stereo. Trust me, this will give you a superb system at a high end entry level price.

Going "all NAD" for electronics is a pretty safe and easy way to go. Many people have done it that way for many years and for good reason. Tried and true, fewer decisions to make. Simple is often better.

Starting out, I would first establish a budget. Then decide what your primary
source will be. Let's say your primary source is digital.

I would suggest an integrated amp - NAD, Rotel are great choices. I've
owned both, and have a slight preference for Rotel, but only slight-

If you're using a laptop to Download music, you'll want to get an
inexpensive DAC such as an Audioquest Dragon Fly.

Speakers- we are blessed these days with many very fine speakers in the
$300 to $500 range

Speaker cables- my go to inexpensive speaker cable is QED 79 strand.
Hard to find in the US, but online you can get this easily from the UK.

Interconnect? - Kimber PBJ is a great low cost cable.

With intelligent shopping, you can put together a really nice system for
$1000 to $1200, and that's without buying used.

Auditioning- trust your ears and audition stuff only with music you are
familiar with.

A preamp is rather a dinosaur type of device. Back before CD, thhe main thing all preamps did was include a phono secction.
So when CD started and took over, the phono section started to disappear. Along with that went the tone controls and the modern 'Zen' do nothing preamp was born. So nowadays all a preamp does is select, and a volume control.
Lots of folks do without.

For a newbie the main concern when picking cables is NOT MUCH MONEY, and a brand everyone says to buy.
Like BlueJeans cables. and no more than 10% of you elelctronics cost. Then you will not go wrong.
After you learn all am=bout everything and are a guru like so many here, you can spend a fortune on some no name cable you learned about fourth hand which costs a thousand bucks a foot and be happy. But NOT until then.

Best bang for your buck is to buy used. Read up on the big names and wait until one pops up for less than an arm and a leg.

But stick with names which ar e still around...