Higher efficiency speakers. Starting down the road with higher efficiency speakers would have opened the door to less expensive, but excellent lower-powered amplification options, both tubed and solid state. Not talking flea-watt 2-5 wpc power, but more like 20-50 wpc amplifiers and partnering speakers that can rock out within that power range.
With what you know now what components doe you wish you had bought years ago?
After all the biased advertising and sales pitches and after the smoke has cleared what components do you wish you had bought. My daddy would say with hindsight 20/20. With what I've read the G.A.S. Ampzilla comes to mind or a Hafler amp. Good solid word by mouth on the internet. The HK cassette deck CD491 is another I was actually able to acquire 8 years ago and was a solid performer until an electric fault came up. Ive read that shops that sold that and the Dragon compared the two side by side and the HK held its own or would I dare say sounded as good for half the price? I read one time it specd out better. Another one would be the Infinity Kappa 9 speaker. I had a ballsy enough amp to handle it.