Pigpen - I think you'll be happy w/ the Mira + Apollo combo for a long time. I'd also thought of the Rega combo when I was trying to set up my 1st system, and the Regas really impressed me. Bold & musical, really gutsy. I don't know about the Euro situation or the retail value where you are, so someone else might be able to help better in regards to price. A lot of people will say that you can go for used, near-mint gear, as the Regas do come up fairly frequently on Audiogon and such, but there's nothing like breaking in your own equipment from the get-go...

Cables: don't go crazy! You don't need to spend a lot of money to get great performance out of your gear. There are guys in this forum who can recommend particular brands. I've heard good things about Anti-Cable, Kimber 4TC, Blue Jeans, etc... these can be had on the cheap. (There's a guy in this forum, Tom, who seems really knowledgeable about gear, who uses $100 speaker cables (Anti Cables, I think?) for his $50,000+ system, and claims that they're better than the luxury brand cables he had before... hopefully he'll chime in after reading this post to give you some tips.) Also, look into Cardas entry level interconnects and speaker cables, like Twinlink. Although they're affordable, they're quality stuff - litz copper wires & teflon insulation... they came recommended to me by a friend who's a metallurgical engineer and a discerning listener, and he's tried A LOT of fancy cables. Don't waste your hard-earned money on cables, dude. You can get a nice turntable instead w/ that $.

My suggestion would be to go the Rega Planet 2000 + Mira route. Mira is a considerably better product than Brio, although Brio is no slouch. I don't see a good reason to go new. People who sell their stuff on Audiogon baby it and most of the stuff you get is like new even if they rate it 8 out of 10. That would be my suggestion. It gives you all the musicality while keeping you within budget.

If you shop on Audiogon, you're talking about US$600 for the Planet 2000 and about US$1,000 or less for the Mira.