Here's what I would do ---
I would use a computer for your front end. Rip your CD's to the hard drive, uncompressed. Then, get a top notch USB DAC like the Apogee Mini-Dac. Then, get powered speakers like Mackie HR824 -- buy them used and you can stay within your budget. Now, you only need to buy a pair of XLR balanced interconnects. This whole system will come in for the same budget you're talking about and it will compete with traditional systems costing two or three times as much. You get the technological advantages of internal bi-amping, active crossovers, jitter-free digital, wonderful sounding DAC, the elimination of speaker cables, balanced line level signal and interconnects.
Computer -- $1,000
Apogee Mini-Dac -- $1,000
Mackie HR824 -- $1,000
Balanced XLR interconnects -- $20
I would use a computer for your front end. Rip your CD's to the hard drive, uncompressed. Then, get a top notch USB DAC like the Apogee Mini-Dac. Then, get powered speakers like Mackie HR824 -- buy them used and you can stay within your budget. Now, you only need to buy a pair of XLR balanced interconnects. This whole system will come in for the same budget you're talking about and it will compete with traditional systems costing two or three times as much. You get the technological advantages of internal bi-amping, active crossovers, jitter-free digital, wonderful sounding DAC, the elimination of speaker cables, balanced line level signal and interconnects.
Computer -- $1,000
Apogee Mini-Dac -- $1,000
Mackie HR824 -- $1,000
Balanced XLR interconnects -- $20