the thing is i have and will spend more than i can afford on the speakers and amp
Good lad.
Yes, running active means ditching the "passive" crossovers that came with your components.
Cables are a can of worms, some swear by real expensive stuff, others don't. I use some fancy Phoenix Gold RCA leads that I bought second hand, for speaker wire I use Autoleads 2.5mm² for my midbass & tweeters up front and 4.0mm² for the subwoofer. No noise issues for me so I'm happy with that.
For soundproofing, I use Dynamat Xtreme, up to 3 layers in places. A company called Second Skin also do a similar product that is very good, if not a touch better. I'll probably use theirs for when I do a bit more in mine.
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