Scott Gardner wrote:

Let's say that you want to assemble the best-sounding system you can
on a budget of $10,000. You are limited to two types of gear:

1) Brand-new, current models, for which you pay average retail.

2) Five-year old equipment, which costs you exactly half of what it
cost new.

Try 1/3 to 1/4. But we'll say 1/2 for this example.

Essentially I'm asking if it's easier to build a quality system with
$10,000 worth of 2003 gear, or with 1998 gear that cost $20,000 at the
time.

I'm not interested in particular brands or models, I'm just curious
whether you would prefer new or used, and why. Feel free to mix and
match as well, such as selecting a new preamp, but a used amplifier.

Only ones with numerous moving or wearing parts like a record player
or tape deck. A DVD player also should be new for this reason and
also because the recent advances ARE really nice - you can get a
Panasonic progressive scan DVD player that has crystal clean slow
motion and pause and whatnot for under $300 last I checked.

Figure $1000 for all these three pieces. Also, a TV should be new
or if a projection unit, have new bulbs and screens/elements.

As for amplifiers and receivers, it's all the same technology.
Speakers are fairly simmilar - most B&W brands you can buy today,
for instance, were selling 4-5 years ago.