Coming out of the blackhole called work...retirement

There are plenty of affordable hifi components on the market from several manufacturers. I am not familiar with the one you mentioned but I think an enjoyable system can be assembled with a reasonable (meaning not astronomical) budget.

What do you have now, what are you hoping to achieve, and how much are you willing to spend?

We are in a Golden Age of affordable gear so NO you don’t need to spend big bucks to have great sound...
But we do need to know several things besides budget.What types of music do you listen to mostly,how big is the room and how loud do you listen..What is the rooms acoustic signature,lively/bright(lots of reflective surfaces),highly damped(lots of stuffed furniture,heavy drapes,thick carpet)or something in between?Do you need a Phono stage?Can the speakers be pulled out from walls and boundries or need to be close to walls?Do you want floorstanding towers or stand mount Monitor style speakers
Off the top of my head with no other intel I say a Streaming Based system with an all Tube Control Center/Amplifier like my Quad AV-One and the best speakers you can afford...All in 1 box solutions have surpassed the need for separate preamps and amps with manufacturers like Ayre,McIntosh,Mark Levinson and other heavy hitters supporting the consolidation...

Ok, thanks freediver. That's a heap to consider. We are building a new house with one room (about 5m x 5m x 2.4m) for my music room. I can have free reign as far as sound proofing and preparing for the new equipment. I have 400 records and a turntable, albeit old, a JVC Quartz Lock direct drive, so a phono stage is a yes. The rest, I haven't a clue. I suspect I will be budgeting between $50k to $100k for a decent system but I am still trying to absorb as must information as I can. I have heard that Ayre preamps are good, but expensive unless one is available second hand. Streaming, yes, I have a NAS with 10,000 tracks on it that I listen via a PC and DAC/Senn HD800 phones. The big stuff is something I need to get my head around.!

Get out and listen to as much gear as you can. What else are you to do while you wait for your house to be built? Congratulations on the retirement!

Even though you can afford a $100k rig, you might find that $20 or even $15k worth of gear is just as good to your ears. The systems that receive BOS awards are often near the $20k range. If I had a $100k budget, I'd spend a few $000 in road trips to demo as much as I can. You have the time and the scratch, you don't need advice here. Listen for yourself.

@amg56.....you are speaking of the Lightspeed Attenuator, by George, who goes by the name here of georgehifi.