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.

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.

YEah, gotta know what your source is/will be.

Unless you have an existing library of music in some other format to use, like vinyl or tape for example, then digital is the place to be these days for starters.

You can use an existing computer as your main source for digital either by streaming from the internet (many very good quality music stations/sources there for free) or buying and downloading files, or by ripping CDs.

Then you do a digital connection from computer as a source to play music on the music system to-be. Many ways to do this connection. USB is a popular way to do this. Wireless Wifi network connections another. FOr Wifi, you need Wifi on teh other end as part of the hifi system. SAme for USB.

Then you need an amp and speakers as discussed, just like in the olden days....

Do not think in terms of traditional pre-amp/amp terms. You need a device to do those functions, but these come in many forms these days. At minimum, you need to be able to connect your digital source (via wired USB or wireless Wifi most likely) have a volume control, and an amplifier suited to drive the speakers well. This can all be in one or many boxes. One box keeps things simple for now. One box is essentially a modern integrated amplifier, like those from NAD for example, but geared mainly towards modern digital source gear. AN extra traditional line level input is all that is needed to start to add a phono or other analog source later if needed (or not).

One other important thing to mention with a computer as a source is to make sure all your valuable music files get backed up and can be restored reliably, just like with any important/valuable computer files.

Yuppies are so 80's/Reagan era.

What is the modern equivalent of a yuppie then?

Do all smart phone owners qualify?

Have not heard Xeo but have never heard bad sounding Dynaudio and the Xeo design makes things very easy it would seem. Nice product!