How Do I Start Playing With the Big Boys and Girls

Thank you for the many suggestions. The first thing I've done is to start to explore the reviews on the Rogue Audio pre-amps and amps. I'm intrigued with these and have emailed the company to find out who carries these in Northern New England/Boston area. To respond to some of your threads, I'd say that I could spend between 3,000 to 4,000 for the pre-amp and amp combination. The room is a fairly large living room, and dining area. Jdombrow mentioned cables which I haven't considered, and at this point I'm totally in the dark about these important accessories. When you talk about minimum power for an amp versus the speaker requirement, are you saying that the amp should be able to power no higher than the power rating for the speakers? I purchased the Sonus Faber Signums used (over eBay) and there weren't any spec sheets on a manual with them so at this point I don't know the minimum power needs are. The Signums are from 98/99. I'm running a Luxman 200 watt amp M-117, which the Signums seem to be handling. I don't mind buying used at all. In fact I like the idea of getting the original owners input on the equipment. Sogood51 and Crazyblues indicate to forget the tubes and remain solid-state, which from what I've seen so far pits the tubers against the solids with each having very strong feelings about which way to go. It must be the endless audio debate. Your continued input is very helpful. Thank you!

Yes Eldragon, "music heaven" would be terrific to live with considering I'm a music educator and my high school band occasionally sounds like the opposite of music heaven. To answer Cellorover and Gregm, my music interests are very eclectic, from classical, jazz, rock, world, techno, etc. but I would say the focus is jazz and classical first. When one suggests they are into clasical though, isn't that misleading, as there are so many forms and styles? I'm thinking that the Gymnopedies for piano by Erik Satie would demand something different from the equipment than the last dance movement of The Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky or even The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, as examples. Is there equipment in the area of amps that is known for being able to reproduce and handle the wide variety of sonic demands that classical music puts upon the ear? Thanks again for all the input.