1. Choose your speakers first. They will ultimately define system sound quality.
2. Get power sorted before you start. Either a dedicated radial or have sufficient unswitched sockets installed. No power strips!
3. Plan your supports. Use decoupling principles to ensure minimal vibrations. No spikes!
4. Buy inexpensive cables to get you started but pay attention to power cables as well.
5. Experiment with speaker positioning, toe-in, decoupling etc.
6. Treat your listening room, use curtains or fabrics to reduce flutter echo, big furnishings to help with bass modes.

7. If you're on a tight budget, make your own cables, use squash balls for decoupling, granite place mats for weights etc.

Speakers first, without a doubt.
Unfortunately my taste in speakers errs on the expensive side, so a substantial proportion of the funds, probably around 90%, will be spent there.

Luckily, I seem very happy with relatively cheap electronics, and I'd continue in that vein.

Digital all the way, it's been my mantra for many years that vinyl gets in the way of the music. Internet streaming is literally a dream come true for me.

I used to spend loads on cables, but it's been my experience that carefully chosen (to suit my tastes) cheaper varieties are just as good.

Accessories like fancy supports and grounding boxes haven't provided me with a more musical experience, so those will be avoided.

Mains treatment gizmos like regenerators or balanced supply units are worthwhile for me.

Oh, and if at all possible a dedicated music room!
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I forgot to say, and wholeheartedly agree with, starting a system with digital streaming. Forget LPs, CDs or ripping files, use your preferred streaming service as your source and optimise around it.

Very interesting folks, thank you all. If we now focus on the digital side of things, from router through to and including the DAC, what are your thoughts here?

Assuming basic mains power sorted - say one or more dedicated radials from a separate consumer unit. Is balanced mains a game changer?

Assuming analogue side from DAC output onwards sorted.

Let’s say we’re willing to spend around £3k - £5K on the digital elements (including any special Ethernet switches, clocks, reclockers, linear power supplies, grounding boxes, cables, the DAC itself etc), preferably on second hand kit if available to get best VFM.

Cheers. Bill

Do you mean in terms of balanced power, or investment in the digital chain?

Have it own dedicated router with a decent power supply Decent ethernet cable with a dedicated ethernet switch 
A well designed network bridge ideally with a dedicated board
The best cables I can afford 
A Reclocker 
The best DAC I can afford I like to hear what a ladder DAC can do
Decent grounding throughout the digital chain I kind of wish this stuff did not make a difference but it does 

I've never really been sold on the idea of a streamer / DAC combo - I like the idea of being able to upgrade them individually as and when.

My understanding of balanced power is, a bit like using balanced interconnects, that it provides a high level of rejection of common mode noise on the live and neutral lines of the mains supply to the balanced power system.

Clearly an isolation transformer (balanced or otherwise) can have a significant impact on dc on the mains - although with my isolation transformer (an old Ben Duncan unit) I also benefit from a dc blocker, which I've been using for some years.  My mains is around 250v and even with the dc blocker the isolation transformer can 'growl' and buzz when milking machines get working on adjacent farms.

I have also been using an MIT Z-Powerbar mains conditioner for many years - it certainly improved the enjoyment of my system when I did some in/out tests.

Do please keep adding thoughts - eg on the digital side might it be best to go 'all out' for an amazing DAC, or keep back significant funds for EtherRegens, Mutecs, temperature controlled clocks, grounding boxes and the like?

Cheers. Bill

Ideas and experiences change and evolve, but at the moment I'd disagree about spending a large wedge on a DAC.

My rather curious recent experience is that cheaper DACs can be substantially superior to more expensive ones, even from a single manufacturer!

Take my experience with Chord DACs. I've heard as far up the Chord food chain as the near-£2k Hugo 2 in my system, with several along the way. But by far my favourite is the lowest price Mojo. I'm sure the others are technically better, and they undoubtedly have better transparency and resolution, but they aren't better musically imo, quite the opposite.

Also the little Musical Fidelity V90. Bought on the recommendation of a friend for a bit over £100 it's astonishingly good, and punts many a 4 figure DAC into the weeds as far as I'm concerned. Me and my friend aren't alone here, Sam Tellig in Stereophile put it in Class A in company with DACs costing hugely more.

And the MyST R2R ladder DAC I'm currently using is at least as good as any DAC I've heard imo. About £500 new, £225 used.

As for the recent crop of technoperfect Chinese DACs, that's an easy and obvious road to go down but it didn't work out for me. Starting out with high hopes and expectations I ended up quite disenchanted.
Martin's happy with his Chinese LKS, but the amount of tweaking he's done to make it musically convincing is rather mind blowing. Straight out of the box, going by what he has posted, I think he found it deficient in musically important ways. But you're a technically competent tweaker like Martin, Bill. (Unlike me). So that might be a sensible route for you as well.


So I would certainly advocate experimentation and personal experience of a range of options before making assumptions about what would be best for you.