Many moons ago, I dabbled in the very very low end of what some might call "hi-fi." Had a system with a Denon receiver, some Klipsch speakers, NAD (and later Philips) CD player, etc. But then along came a kid, buying a home, etc., and the stereo stuff basically went by the wayside. If I'm listening to music these days, it's typically in my vehicle.
Well, I'm ready to jump back in (a bit). I'm now trying to set up a simple 2-channel system in an office space (room is roughly 12' by 12') with lots of hard surface -- noise carries like crazy in both the room and the house in general. I figure I'll mostly stream (Spotify and Amazon Music) off my phone, but I also want to have CD and vinyl capability. I think I still have my old Philips CD player and/or a Sony Blu-Ray/DVD/CD player packed away somewhere, so a CD player is not really needed at this point. What I'm looking at are integrated amps and bookshelf speakers. At some point, I'll need to get a turntable, because I do have a vinyl collection from back in the day. I'm trying to keep the total under $1500, which shouldn't be too difficult.
So . . . I'm looking for recs, thoughts, suggestions, etc. Re: the amp, I'm interested in models that have Bluetooth and/or DAC for purposes of streaming, so I've been looking at the NAD D3020 v2 and the Cambridge Audio AXR100. They both have DAC and Bluetooth, and the price is about the same, but I'm kinda leaning toward the Cambridge because 100w > 30w.
As for the speakers, there seem to be a ton of options. Was looking at the KEF Q150 and Polk ES15 (both about $300/pair), but then started reading about the Fluance XJ8S at only $180/pair. Normally I'm spending the most $$ out of my budget on speakers, but I'm reading some reviews about how the Fluance sounds better than the Polks. If I can get similar (or even better) sound for $120 cheaper, I'm all for that. But if there's one component that I want to make sure I get right, it's the speakers.
The turntable will likely come a little later, but I'm wide open. Reading good things about some of the Fluance tables as well as other makers, but the Rega Planar I is tempting even though it's more than I really want to spend on a turntable for this type of small-room, 2 channel setup.
Thoughts?