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Indeed cables are extrememly important, the best amplifier will sound shite if it's connected up with bell wire, both to the mains and to the speakers, the standard with cheap seperates from Comet interconnect cables, (with plastic moulded phono plugs) are crap too. 10% of budget for cables is a fair-good starting point, but you have to remember that cables "burn in" and will sound different after a few days or weeks of use depending how much you use them. It's easy to burn in a CDplayer cable or Tuner interconnect, just turn the amp down and leave a CD on repeat for overnight and while you're at work. Speaker cables are a bit more difficult to burn in, 'cos you do need to play them a signal at or near normal listening levels to burn them in quickly. No problem if you don't have neighbours, just leave the tuner and amp going for a day or two, some take a week or more to burn in, some are advertised as "ready burnt in" or you can buy secondhand and assume the previous owner actually used them enough.
I can only recommend that you try as combinations as possible, hence I'll suggest e-bay and patience. I think much of hifi is patience, and dogmatic insistence to try as many as possible...

Ah! I still have a Thorens TD160 with a Hadcock uni-pivot arm (GH228) which I keep as standby for while I'm doing work on the Ariston/Linn turntable which is my main and favoured source of analogue excitement. The Thorens can be fitted with Linn Valhalla springs and a Linn Valhalla supply board can also be incorporated, but there are various other options for motor/speed control. I won't bore you with pages of stuff about Thorens modifications but if you want to know I'm happy to tell you my experiences of having owned the TD160 since 1982...
Spot on info about dacs and transports there Mr Marlin, I think I mentioned in the valve thread that the Arcam uses the same transport mechanism as the Naim CD players of the same vintage. You have to spend many thousands to get any better! And as you point out, it's quite easy to plug a lead from the Arcam to the DAC of your choice and on to your amplifier... Or get Avondale or somebody of similar repute to provide mods to the internal DAC. DAC in a box is the easy way of auditioning, and be prepared for vastly different sounds/presentation from the same CD, even with DAC's who use the same chipsets (digital to analoge chips and amplifier chips) as even the same electronics sound different in different cases, with different circuit boards and power supplies.
Welcome to the world of "Why do these two boxes have the same internals, but sound different?" Davinci code has nothing on the stuff you hear at hifi shows...
Valves- well people used to say they were forever needing to be replaced, but this really isn't true, it depends on how they are used. If you keep turning them off and on then they will "wear out" much quicker than if they're left on constantly. OK, they run warm, and some amps do draw quite a lot of power even when they're idle, but many have an option of "standby" or if they don't there are simple ways they can be modified for standby operation. This means the valve heaters keep warm, and as these are possibly the most fragile part of a valve, continual heating/cooling will age them quickly. This also means that you can come home from work and flick the standby switch to "run" and your amps will be already very near to optimum temp, rather than waiting for a couple of minutes before you hear much if any sound, and at least half an hour before everything has equalised in temp and the amp is performing right. All electronics sound better when they're allowed to stay at "running temperature" and they tend to be far more reliable for the long term if kept running constantly. Even amplifiers, CD players and tuners which are "solid state" not valve (thermionic emission) electronics sound better when they're warm. Stuff global warming if you're a hifi nerd leave it cooking non stop! Get a pushbike and cycle to work to lower the carbon footprint balance if it bothers you! Most hifi's take far less than a telly anyhow!

What cartridge are you running PetS? I always liked the Ortofon VMS20 as a fine companion to the Dual 505-2.

SME 3009 tonearms? Go for early bronze bearing and non-interchangeable headshell arms (series 1 not S2). They are more expensive but for the simple reason that they do sound better. The 3012 arms were very very very good if you have a plinth that will accomodate it.
I gave my last 3009 SME away, ok it was a late model with plastic bearing housing and interchangeable headshell, but the guy I gave it to never got himself a decent turntable to use it on, he sold all the hifi bits he had (including the SME 3009 arm, which I'd told him he could have if he used it!) and never even told me... I found out a year or two after from his ex girlfriend. No wonder he hasn't phoned me to say "Come and listen to my new turntable!" Ah well, I hope he's happy with his Amstrad stack...
Stuart at SRM Tech/Audio, and CollectRadio are sellers to keep an eye on in e-bay land, as they tend to have lots of SME and Thorens parts, CollectRadio seem to turn over a few bits for Garrard 301/401s too.
HiFi is a serious problem... Can I have a sicknote Doc?