And now for something completely different.
This will be a very personal flavored system – I'm taking the approach of putting together what I would do if replacing what I have, and after many years of listening to other approaches, I still like what I have – it just suits my palate better than anything else I can think of for <$10k.
I'm a huge vinyl and separates guy but based on what I've heard lately playing all digital as DSD128, I'll start by abandoning vinyl and with no need for a phono-stage, an integrated will work. I'll 'cook-the-books' a little to make things fit starting with the room which I feel is the most important component – I'll assume anyone dropping $10k on a system has the room sorted first, even though I know that's rarely the case.
For me the system revolves around the speakers (which must suit the room) and I'm sticking with something Altec 604 based. Maybe you get lucky and can pick up some Model-17s or raw drivers used but let's assume buying new from Great Plains; the
604-8H-III or my personal choice –
604E-Series II (alnico!). Crossovers from Great Plains might do it (haven't heard them) but leave them accessible so you can consider Markwarts which I know I like – a lot. Build (or go to a good cabinet maker) a wide front baffle (>24”) vented box that get's the driver up to ear height, Baltic-birch, lots of internal bracing, rabbeted construction, veneer to taste. Since we want these to reach as low as possible, figure internal volume around 9cu.ft. Drivers & crossovers $2k, professionally built cabinets $1k.
Speakers are up around 98db efficient and and I have to have SET so I think 845 – people say these sound like my favorite triode (the 45) with balls and I have to agree based on hearing a few. Since I won't have the $ for distributed bass, the extra power of an 845 over the 2A3s and 300Bs I use should make for better bass and killer dynamics on these Altecs. I loved what I heard from the Line Magnetic 218IA so I'll go with it.
If I get patriotic enough to break the budget, I might choose the $6k Canadian made Coincident turbo 845SE which is supposed to be a little better than the 218IA (though a little too blingy for me).
For wire I'll round-up some thin-ga cotton covered copper, maybe play with various braiding recipes for the speakers, a used pair of good copper ICs and a Wireworld USB cable – maybe $300 if I'm careful. I feel wire is important but find it's effect subtle at best and since we are on a budget, this is a great place to compromise.
Unless I can squeeze some more out of the above, I'm down to only $1700 for my DSD128 front-end so time to pave the way for future upgrades. I'd build a fast i7 Windows machine with some decent drive space, load up Jriver for ripping and file management, Hqplayer (the important piece!) to do up-scaling on-the-fly and hook into an iFi Micro DSD DAC. I'd then start ripping all my physical media into straight copies on the internal hard drive (with backups) – i.e. CDs rip to 16/44.1 wav. Everything get's played as DSD128 or DSD256.
That's my $10k but I'd chip away at that digital pretty fast. Assuming you have a wired/wireless network, I'd add a NAS for file storage, get that big player machine into another room (it's noisy!) and remote control it with the laptop or tablet that you already have. That long USB from the player to DAC would be a Corning optical (long run & galvanic isolation) or add a lean (wired) streamer PC running Windows and HQPlayer's NAA software – maybe another $1.5k.
I said Windows above because I'm getting ready for a DAC upgrade and I need the drivers to support DSD256 or even DSD512 conversion. I'll stick with the patriotic thing, sell the Micro and move up to a Canadian made exaSound – I've heard these playing DSD on several occasions and it might be the best digital I've ever heard. For $2k it would be the e12 or maybe the e22 at $3.5k. I'd figure on another $500 for a linear power supply for the DAC down the road too.
Aside from a wild-card play like a Lampizator DSD DAC (hmmm, haven't one of those yet...) I'd be set and ready to start planning for vinyl and distributed bass when that next big bonus comes in.