Best advice, go to a hifi store and listen to lots of speakers and gear and find out what you like and don’t like, also listen to music you know. It’s like buying shoes, a mattress or a car… you have to experience what you want.

Have you been to a dedicated hifi dealer and listened to a decent and reasonably priced setup? If yes, did it move you? Was it another dimension of musical enjoyment to you?

Spend 70% of your budget on speakers, 20% for amp, 10% for source.

Buy used!

You cannot recreate live music. Play it loud and play it often.

if u like it, that’s all that matters

1. Start small. Have a budget and stick to it. I would start at most at 2% of my annual income and go no further for my first college try.
2. Understand the nomenclature behind the hobby. Figure out basic electronic terms like impedance, watts, audio frequency, bit rate/depth, bloom, etc. That describes what your equipment can do. Then learn about words like ‘detail’, ‘darkness’, ‘dynamics’, ‘harsh’, etc.
3. Go through the collection of music that you have. Figure out what you listen to most. Figure out how you like to listen to it. If you like to listen to hip hop on digital media, but you prefer listening to that with your headphones on (e.g. if you are from the East Coast), don’t shell out a lot on speakers. If you like to listen to vinyl recordings of old punk records, then fidelity isn’t nearly as important as the robustness of the equipment. If you like listening to classical music composed before 1920, then you want to optimize for clarity, a wide sound stage if you like opera (or Wagner), etc etc.
4. Buy used if you can help it.
5. Make your own cables. Saves a buttload of money.

I have a bit of experience (just a pair of iems and a FiiO dac/amp) and I’ve noticed that, no matter the equipment, always enjoy you music for many years I listened my songs with a cheap earbuds and my phone, and just this year I could buy my dac, and my iems are not pricey, they were 35 bucks, plus the dac, I spent 100 dollars, and was the best money I could ever spent, listen to what you like, everybody will say that you should listen to “audiophile” songs or less mainstream music, just crap, even if you just have mp3, they’re yours, and if you enjoy them, it’s awesome, I don’t have many mp3, but they’re mine and that doesn’t mean that it’s bad music, and always buy gear that you can afford and you’re comfortable with, for example I prefer a portable dac, because I like to listen my music on the bed or my desk, and overall, sit down, relax and enjoy, and don’t get overwhelmed if you want to upgrade and get the best value, just buy something that is well known for its Qualities, even if it’s a bit old, you won’t be disappointed, for a reason that gear it’s well known

If you can’t enjoy cheap good stuff you’ve lost your way.

Buy Used. The majority of audiophile nerds treat their gear like museum pieces.

Listen how you enjoy most, not how “experts” say to.