If you you are planning to dump that kind of d'ough into a reference quality recording rig, I'd think you'd want a "reference quality stereo" at home to know that your running things correctly.
Great point that a lot of people forget. Without a decent playback system (I wouldn't call my "reference", but it serves me quite well), it's difficult to evaluate one's recording gear. Plenty of good, low-ish budget recording gear options out there. I say spend $1k - $1.5k, spend some cash on playback, record, and listen for a while. Then decide what you do or don't like about your current recording (or playback gear for that matter) and make adjustments accordingly.
I personally do my most intense listening through a great pair of headphones and that for me is as good a stereo sound as I care to acheive for playback, but that's my listening tendency because my wife can't stand my music, so I end up listening to it all through my headphones. $200 for my playback rig. I learned way back in the old days listening to Hendrix Are You Experienced and Yes Close To The Edge that my best listening experiences were inside the solitude of my headphones anyway. But that's me.
Regarding the question about what I have wrapped up in my rig, here you go.
$1000 -- Neumann KM184 mics, fantastic crystal clear and balanced signal response. I don't even hardly need to EQ my recordings in post or during playback because they come out dead nuts almost every time.
$950 -- AKG 480 bodies with CK61 cardioid capsules. Decided I wanted a pair of mics to run hypers with and didn't like the Neumann hyper sound. Preferred the AKG hyper sound so figured I couldn't go wrong having a second set of high quality cardioid capsules as the 'base' set even though the AKGs will almost always be run with the 63s in a hyper setup.
$350 -- AKG CK63 hyper cardioid capsules
$400 -- Used unmodded Marantz PMD-660
$170 -- Cost to have Chris Busman Johnson perform his AWESOME mod to the Marantz PMD-660
$600 -- Package price for the following...
UA-5 (Oade Warm Mod)
Microtrack 2496
Extra Batteries
4 GB card
A couple of cables
I bought the above to have spare accessories for the 660 recorder and the pre-amp, just in case anything breaks or otherwise stops working. Besides, this extra gear is great sounding stuff too.
$160 -- Silver Audiomagic Hyperconductor Cables
$70 -- Segue Dogstar Cables
$125 -- Spare batteries for the UA-5
$35 -- DPA windscreens
$80 -- Two gear bags; one lowe pro Nova 4 and one Rak gear
$160 -- Nomad JB3
$40 -- Amvona Mic Stand
$50 -- Shure Vert Bar
$45 -- Joe Meek Shock Mounts
$100 -- Various adapters, clamps, and hardware for clamping, converting, etc.
$10 -- Swiss army knife type tool that has pliers and screwdrivers for gear bag
$10 -- Flashlight for gear bag
$5 -- (2) Mountain climber style clips for holding cables rolled up on the outside of my gear bag.
$55 -- Initial set of 4 - 2500 mah Energizer batteries and 15 minute charger unit; plus 12 additional for a total of 16.
$120 -- Two 2 GB CF media cards and one 4 GB.
$70 -- miscellaneous other cables I've made for myself out of Belden 1804A including the XLR connectors.
Total is about $4600. You can get away with alot less, but the miscellenous stuff does tend to add up. You kinda collect that as you go though.