My system is perfectly ok as it is right now, that is until PS Audio releases additional speaker models…
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This is a pretty pointless discussion without a budget.
My advice is set a budget and plan that it is your final system, no changes, no more spending. Plan to spend 50% or more on speakers. However you buy, get a demo or loan before committing, and then ensure you have a warranty.
That said, I read and ignored Paul’s book because it is full of his prejudices, for regeneration (I use mains conditioning), for subwoofers (not me) and against integrated units (I have almost always used integrated amplifiers and now have a fully integrated one-box system). A lot of the book is about set-up, but if you buy from a dealer they should do the set-up, and a lot better than you can.
Bear in mind most people have pretty limited and often regional experience of the vast range of products out there.
I love violin music, one of my favourite performers is Alina Ibragimova, heard her play many times and have most of her recordings. My wife considers her a force of nature. I too hate treble fatigue that it can generate. As examples from my experience, Harbeth will never fatigue, have great tonality, but relatively weak imaging. The image does not wander, which can sometimes be due to the amplifier, but it is more a wave of sound. My current speakers, Wilson, are much the same top end and tonality, but much better imaging and only because they were professionally installed. I could not get the imaging doing the set-up myself. Wilson train their dealers to do set-up and mine has done hundreds of pairs.
An all-in-one product like NAD M33 is universally praised. There are good reasons why. It uses Purifi amplifiers, which are state of the art for Class D. It has magnificent control and playback software, called BluOs, just about the most popular out there. The rest of the digital electronics are fine, at that price point it is difficult to go wrong.
These units have a high quality power supply, so a regenerator would probably make no difference (from personal experience), add great expense and provide surplus power outlets as you only need one. Again, in my experience, Class D might benefit from power conditioning and there are products that provide the single conditioned power outlet you need, at a very modest price.
Of course, if your budget is $500,000, you might want a component system and any number of dealers should send you air tickets to visit them.
You do have a lot of dealers in your area. The nearest seems to be https://www.audioadvice.com, who don’t sell any of the brands that I mentioned, but stock lots of Focal that lots of people like, but I found fatiguing!
The best way for me has always been to start with the speakers. Your example of Wilson Audio is a great, but expensive one. The entire line of Wilson’s speakers has the same fundamental sound, you get more of it as you spend more.
The speakers will set the expectations for the upstream equipment. If you do not get a speaker you like the sound of you will never like your system.
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Perfectly said.
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… back to what we all agree: power and speakers first.
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I think that power (dedicated circuit and regenerator) should be first after seeing what the regen’s can do but it would strain most beginners budgets (and sensibilities) to go there first. It is however the first component in the playback chain and therefore affects all of the rest.
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Many well informed experiences, which can be very different from each other. It’s these experiences and considerations, if somehow condensed in document form, that someone could refer to when planning out a system. Thank you.
Or simply “quixotic.”
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I’m lost. Please explain quixotic, Quiote, and Cervantes.
“Quixotic” - Tilting at windmills. Pointlessly idealistic quests.
Webster: “foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals; marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action.”
The word stems from “Quixote” as in Don Quixote, the epic Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes, the title character of which was noted for his idealistic, sometimes imaginary, but always improbable quests. And the basis of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha, from which sprang the hit “To Dream the Impossible Dream.”
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And then there’s Dulcinea.
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Which is not just an album by Toad the Wet Sprocket.
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Much, much more to learn here than audio. Thank you.
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Don’t forget Sancho!
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An approach that worked for me was to realize that building a system is a process and will take quite a while. I “simply” would try to find the weakest link in my system and then spend as much as I could afford fixing/replacing it. After getting used to the new system if the unit was indeed fixing the problem I’d start thinking about the next weakest link. If I found I was listening to music less I’d undo the last change. At some point things stopped changing, I like my speakers, my amps, my preamps, my cables and don’t feal a need to upgrade like I used to.
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Great approach, if not starting from scratch…
I started with some Radio Shack Minimus 7’s, a Onkyo integrated amp (no receiver) and upgraded from a Penny’s cassette tape player to an early Sony portable CD player 
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Those were the days!
My first system was a JC Penny Receiver and Cassette Deck (“MCS” was the name of the product line) and a pair of 3-way Fisher speakers.
Things started to get interesting when I bought a Carver “Z-coupler” and added an Adcom 100wpc channel amp to the mix.
It’s been a Ted Smith-like approach ever since - seeking to eke out better performance with better kit a little bit at a time over the decades.
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Seems like a new topic for the Forum “Your first rig”.
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