Audiophile newbie

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...

"Receiver" is another term you may run across. A "receiver" is an integrated amplifier along with a tuner (which is an AM/FM radio) in one box, i.e., a tuner, preamp, and power amp in one box.

For someone starting out, I wholeheartedly second going "all Nad" for electronics with one possible exception. If you will be buying a CD player and have as much as $500 to spend on that one component, then the player to get is the Oppo 103. For someone starting out, I also wholeheartedly second going "all bluejeans" for ALL cables.

As for speakers, I second two fundamental rules of thumb already mentioned: (1) devote approximately 50% of total budget to speakers, and (2) don't buy any speaker that you cannot hear first.

Over time as someone has more money and decides to get more into this "hobby," one finds that further investment often finds its way into power conditioning, power cords, cabling, room treatments, and various and asundry other tweaks. And no doubt, there may be worthwhile investments to be made in these areas. Just be aware, however, that these are also the areas where the most money is likely to be wasted because of the degree of trial and error and guesswork that's involved.

Last but not least, when researching specific products, never rely purely on a review in any print and/or online publication that relies primarily on advertising dollars for its lifeblood. Most of them rarely say anything negative, and when they do, they sugar coat the negative finding to such a degree that it no longer comes across as the negative that it is. I'm not saying don't read the Absolute Sounds of the world but just make sure to also read forums like this one and several others.

I agree too NAD is good start!

I agree with the NAD suggestion as well. I had a c350 integrated for a few years as my main amp and I often wonder why I ever sold it.

Agree it's hard to go wrong with NAD and Blue Jeans cables. For speakers you should really go to as many dealers as you can and listen to as many speakers as you can so you can start to nail down what aspects of sound reproduction are most important to you. Often there's "The One" that stands out from the crowd for your personal tastes, so it's worth some effort to try and find what that is. And it's fun. You should wait to decide on a specific amp until you know what speakers you're getting as you'll need to know how much power they need and what matches well with them from a sound characteristics perspective. Best of luck.