Welcome to the hobby . . .
I think there's plenty of good advice above, and even though much of it will lead you to believe your budget won't be enough (ie, "save your money" comments, and equip suggestions clearly higher than your budget). I think it's still fun, and possible to assemble a system on a shoestring. More importantly, if you search carefully, research thoroughly, and by used. you can build a very satisfying budget system. Satisfying to you is the goal, and it doesn't matter if it meets someone's standard of audiophile quality. As pointed out above you can upgrade later selling off what you bought without losing much if any of tour initial cost.
So browse the forum archives. Make sure you know how to search them too, because there's wealth of information there already. I've been a member for ~3 years now and many discussions come up every year or more, and it's also likely that pretty much any topic you want to know about has been asked and discussed previously. Finally, browse the equipment listings, and monitor new listings. If you can, buy a Bluebook subcription. All of this will prepare you to jump on the item you want when it comes up.
I think there's plenty of good advice above, and even though much of it will lead you to believe your budget won't be enough (ie, "save your money" comments, and equip suggestions clearly higher than your budget). I think it's still fun, and possible to assemble a system on a shoestring. More importantly, if you search carefully, research thoroughly, and by used. you can build a very satisfying budget system. Satisfying to you is the goal, and it doesn't matter if it meets someone's standard of audiophile quality. As pointed out above you can upgrade later selling off what you bought without losing much if any of tour initial cost.
So browse the forum archives. Make sure you know how to search them too, because there's wealth of information there already. I've been a member for ~3 years now and many discussions come up every year or more, and it's also likely that pretty much any topic you want to know about has been asked and discussed previously. Finally, browse the equipment listings, and monitor new listings. If you can, buy a Bluebook subcription. All of this will prepare you to jump on the item you want when it comes up.