Hello stereophile readers,
It's a pleasure to be joining the ranks of audio experts. New to the audiophile world, I'm looking to all of you for some direction and guidance with helping me create my first-ever audiophile home audio setup. I'll be moving into a new construction high-rise condo unit in April '07. The challenge? To create the best value audiophile quality system for ~$3000. Here are some constraints:

Hello stereophile readers,
It's a pleasure to be joining the ranks of audio experts. New to the audiophile world, I'm looking to all of you for some direction and guidance with helping me create my first-ever audiophile home audio setup. I'll be moving into a new construction high-rise condo unit in April '07. The challenge? To create the best value audiophile quality system for ~$3000. Here are some constraints:

I am no reviewer.You know this allready.With my limited English,based on personal experience,i will try to pass to you my thoughts about cables and if anyone wants to add or comment about something,he/she is welcome.If you do not understand something i say,please ask me to repeat it in Greek.I will leave behind lots of things.Just want you to know this is my personal "rough quide" .
First-of-all , cables do make a difference.Problem is,not all of us can hear those difference. Why ? Let's categorize
those differences first.
a) Smoother sound
b) extended bass and treble

I have a pair of Boston AR1 floor speakers for my living room-14'x24'. I was using a Denon DRA-395 receiver to play CDs on them until the Denon died last week. The receiver was ok, but it did tend to fatigue me and even hurt my ears at moderately high volumes, say, between 10 and 11 o'clock on the dial. I have about $500 to spend on the Denon's replacement. I don't get any classical stations where I live, so a tuner is not critical to me. I was thinking about buying a Yamaha RX797 receiver, but an integrated amp or pre amp and amp combo would no doubt be better.