It rather depends on your budget in my opinion. But do listen to lots of speakers if you can to see what sounds good to you.
I am also a relative newbie, but Marantz seems to be good place to start - and indeed finish, if that is what suits you, your ears and your budget, Denon are also good and there have been some other longstanding products around that are not too expensive from Arcam, Cambridge, Rega, etc, etc. No doubt you have already discovered a lot of these from doing some reading (as I did), and this can lead to confusion - as it did with me!
Above all, I consider that the best advice I can give is set yourself a budget and stick closely to it, using the principle of buying the best that your budget allows. Constant tweaking, as it appears some hobbyists are drawn to, is the quickest way to burn good, hard earned cash. This is after all an expensive hobby and some higher end equipment changes hands for eye -watering sums.
For the same reason, take your time. some equipment, for apparently strange reasons, take time to 'burn in' (to use a technical term that I do not fully understand and therefore really should not really do, but I am sure you get the gist). But again my limited experience has already taught me that components sometimes sound better after a period of use, rather than straight out of the box - and this can obviously have an impact when listening to units which have stood in dealers premises without power for some time.
Nevertheless, for me at least, part of the joy of the hobby is the journey, which involves seeking the opinions of others. Hopefully, you will arrive at a 'musical nirvana', relatively unscathed - but of course, this cannot be promised!