Audiophile newbie

Agree it's hard to go wrong with NAD and Blue Jeans cables. For speakers you should really go to as many dealers as you can and listen to as many speakers as you can so you can start to nail down what aspects of sound reproduction are most important to you. Often there's "The One" that stands out from the crowd for your personal tastes, so it's worth some effort to try and find what that is. And it's fun. You should wait to decide on a specific amp until you know what speakers you're getting as you'll need to know how much power they need and what matches well with them from a sound characteristics perspective. Best of luck.

YEah, gotta know what your source is/will be.

Unless you have an existing library of music in some other format to use, like vinyl or tape for example, then digital is the place to be these days for starters.

You can use an existing computer as your main source for digital either by streaming from the internet (many very good quality music stations/sources there for free) or buying and downloading files, or by ripping CDs.

Then you do a digital connection from computer as a source to play music on the music system to-be. Many ways to do this connection. USB is a popular way to do this. Wireless Wifi network connections another. FOr Wifi, you need Wifi on teh other end as part of the hifi system. SAme for USB.

Then you need an amp and speakers as discussed, just like in the olden days....

Do not think in terms of traditional pre-amp/amp terms. You need a device to do those functions, but these come in many forms these days. At minimum, you need to be able to connect your digital source (via wired USB or wireless Wifi most likely) have a volume control, and an amplifier suited to drive the speakers well. This can all be in one or many boxes. One box keeps things simple for now. One box is essentially a modern integrated amplifier, like those from NAD for example, but geared mainly towards modern digital source gear. AN extra traditional line level input is all that is needed to start to add a phono or other analog source later if needed (or not).

One other important thing to mention with a computer as a source is to make sure all your valuable music files get backed up and can be restored reliably, just like with any important/valuable computer files.

Have not heard anyone describe themselves as a Yuppie in 20+ years(lol)! I smell troll house cookies.

Yuppies are so 80's/Reagan era.

What is the modern equivalent of a yuppie then?

Do all smart phone owners qualify?

Something a little different to consider. Dynaudio Xeo wireless/amplified speakers. All you need is a source which connects to the transmitter and power near where the speakers will be located (since they have built in amps).