New to this hobby please help me

I heard the Goldenears set up well at Capital Audiofest, and was pleasantly surprised to hear them sound in the same league competitive with most any other setup in a similar room there.  I thought the relatively affordable cost for those as well as the new Chesky Audio monitors was somewhat embarrassing for the competition given some of the big cost differences, bling factors aside.  There is usually at least one or two spoilers like this at the show every year, which helps make these shows more valuable for some.  I’m glad the show does not ban spoiler vendors like these that may make the others look bad.  More money does tend to buy one better speakers but really good ones for most home applications certainly need not cost 5 figures, nor does 5 figures assure good value.

@parkergetdean Trying to provide the best advice I can based upon MY experience. Sorry that you disagree based upon yours. 
@mapman I agree. 

Lest you think I am some sort of elitist, I am not. I look for deals on good to great equipment. 
I bought my ref 3’s (currently $16K retail), used for $5,000. Motivated seller, local pickup, no boxes or grills, but otherwise perfect. Less than I paid for new R11’s. The R11’s are very good, Ref 3’s great IMHO. Sold the R11’s for $2,500 to a very lucky buyer. My BHK pre 1/2 price, same with my Moon amp. There are great deals out there. 
As far as chatGPT is concerned, a great resource when combined with your own research & input from forums such as this. 

The new Chesky LC2 would be a great foundation to build on. Their demonstrated sound quality at CAF was off the charts for the $$.

@mapman  +1

to some degree the definition of a stereo shop is what could be termed knife edge lazy setup. In fairness to the good people at Stereo Unlimited… going to be difficult to find a more extensive set of display inventory… 

no matter where you buy develop a relationship….