I'm just a primary school teacher and I need help :(

[tornpower]

I grew up in a household where Reggae was played a lot. D.B.C broadcast from my mums roof for a few years and old tapes were laying about when I was thirteen. It became a passion, but I was always digging on the internet listening to low grade reproductions. I shied away from actually owning anything until I was recently blown away by an acquaintance's high end system playing some of my favourites on mint vinyl. I was converted on the spot to wanting/needing a rig and high fidelity recordings of my own.

I am now obsessively buying early 70s 45s, fiendishly creating/curating my own little selection of the strictly baddest, rarest cuts I can afford. The problem is... I don't even have a record player . I have an 80s Pioneer amp and a pair of Dynaudio audience 40s. Together they cost £300. I am on a mission to find the ultimate set up - I have been saving and will have £3-4k to spend - I am potentially prepared to go higher. I know it may seem vulgar to you professionals to jump so quickly to the mid-leagues but when I listen to my collection for the first time its going to honestly be one of my great experiences and to do it on the deepest, richest, cleanest sound possible would be sublime.

However my amateur forum lurking and asking around have opened my eyes to the unbelievable range of options. It is frankly staggering and overwhelming. There don't seem to be clear cut answers, but strongly held and argued opinions each particular to the amp, speaker, type of music, room size, even speaker box shape etc. I have only just (thanks Crackles!) been made aware that 'cleanest' sound may not even be appropriate for my predominantly reggae and dub collection.

I hate the look of anything really post 1995 but prob pre 1992 is good enough. I have been told that buying vintage means potentially having any thing I buy - speaker, amp - fully refurbished at potentially considerable expense - I am up for doing this. I am looking for the dream set up that any of you knowledgable people could imagine given my requirements. I am now fully conscious that Reggae and Dub are not appropriate for lots of the audiophile equipment promoted here. I am hoping that this is not strictly true and/or there is a likeminded soul who thinks there is an option for me, or knows what wold work. Ive also been told that speaker design has advanced massively since the 70s so is it sensible to go for the most modern speaker if you were being totally honest about sound? Is this also true of amps? I am asking this hoping that there is still magic in the old models that cant be replicated!

Ive asked a lot of friends but not sure they really know what they are talking about or that it is really reggae vinyl I will be playing. But I have been recommended by them to get either Quad Mono block amps or Leak Stereo 20 amp or and, this was really sold to me, a Croft OTL power amp. Speakers people have been suggesting Tannoy (my friend said the 15 DMT II). I have been looking and like what people are saying about the Rodgers 5/9s. Are any of these suggestions good? I have no idea what I am doing, what even a pre-amp/power amp is? Is it crazy of me to be looking into valve without any prior knowledge/experience? Are they even appropriate for reggae? I say this as humbly as possible, I have been reading your posts for some time and am astounded by the level of expertise on display.

Questions:

1. What is the best power amp, pre amp, speaker, deck combo for early 70s Dub and Reggae vinyl?

2. I will mostly play in my 20 x 30 ft living room but would like once and a while to take the system out to my huge barn for a dance. Is this possible or do I literally need two set ups? Can I shift between the two with the right components?

3. Are OTL Mono Blocks power amps and good Tannoy speakers (which ones!?) the ones for me?

Budget £3-4k

In eternal gratitude to those reading this. Apologies for such a long post and for my ignorance. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks