$1500 for a whole system, budding audiophile

Patrickrealtor76; I'm actually doing this right now for an office system. When I'm finished, I'll have about $1500 in it. Earlier this spring I couldn't pass on a super clean pair of Boston Acoustics A200s for $300 so those are my speakers. However, I just went out and checked my CL and found M&K, B&W, Polk Monitor 10b, Paradigm, Thiel, and PSB speakers; all reasonably priced and some appear to be in excellent condition. I have a Coda Model 10 amp and a Brick Wall surge protector. Now I'm just trying to decide the source. I tested an Oppo 103 direct to the amp which sounded decent at moderate volumes, but not as good at low volumes. And since it is an office where I'm supposed to work, I need something that sounds good at low volume levels. So now I'm thinking about a DAC/preamp. I'll probably give the Emotiva DC-1 and the Monarchy Audio 18B a listen next. I like the idea of the dual mono design of those DACs.

I did an office system that consists of the following and sounds very good.

$300 Kenwood KD-500 turntable with Sumiko Premier MMT tonearm
$150 Unsed Sumiko Alchemist MC Cartridge
$100 Rotel Phono Preamp
$650 Roksan Caspian Integrated
$200 Fried A/3 Speakers
$100 Speaker Stands

Take a look at my office system

Active monitors run directly off of your laptop. Simple, inexpensive, wonderful, done! For example, I outfitted my office with a pair of Adam F7 monitors ($900) connected directly to my laptop headphone output with inexpensive cable. Adam makes a sub specifically for their F7 monitors, though I've yet to feel the need for it - satisfied 95% of the time thus far without it. Had I more coin to splurge on audio I'd consider the sub and perhaps a USB DAC as well. But very satisfied thus far with just the monitors.