What to upgrade first?

SCMCA: I have a pair of Castle Acoustic's Isis speakers listed for sale that are well within your budget, they are very good for your source material and I feel that the reviews are fairly accurate. Review sources of the speakers are listed in the ad. I was running them in an 18 x 24 room with a musical fidelity X-A1 amplifier that is rated at 50 watts per channel. The speakers sounstage and image well when placed as close as 12" from the back wall which is a nice feature in most living room applications. They do need decent 24" sand fillable stands though that should be available for around $100.00. Other speakers that are around the top of your price range that you may want to check out are Linn Tukans (now discontinued but available on the used market), the small PSB's that DanVet mentions and Coincident Triumph Signature's that can sometimes be had for $600.00 or so. I am for upgrading the speakers first as you can see. I am familiar with your CAL player and would leave that for way last following your amplification and cabling down the line, granted that you like its sound. The CAL has a very full, balanced and musical character to it, IMO and is hard to beat without spending a lot more money. I use a CAL Icon Mark II now as a tranport but used it as a stand alone as well and am partial to CAL's sound.

Hi Scmca; All of the above posts offer good advice. You, yourself have already recognized the need to upgrade both your speakers and amp/pre-amp. Being pretty much of a "front end" kind of guy myself, I personally would go with a decent integrated amp first, but I also like Danvetc's, and especially Jim's advice about getting out and perusing the marketplace, listen a lot, and see (listen for) what YOU like. In a way you're fortunate as in the last few years high end manufacturers have turned their attention to integrated amps, so there are many good ones to choose from in the used market. Charlie mentioned the Creek, which I agree is excellent, but there are others. Maybe you'll like tubes, and there, Jolida is a good candidate. It's your call, but enjoy the process. Good Hunting. Craig.

Those Prelude PFRs sound so good with low wattage SETs. Will get you close to class A sound with the tubes. This speaker listed for 4000. Also does well with inexpensive receivers. Well worth the hunt to audition with your own ears. If buy any chance you live near central NJ my friend owns a pair (not for sale) you can listen to. The new model that replaced the PFR i believe list for 6000 or 7000. The PFR was a stereophile class B full range best buy ($$$) speaker that the reviewer bought for himself after the review. I'm not one to boast about a product but after listening to them over my friends many times. I'm quite impressed. Feed them the 50 watt reciever and SCMCA will sound good and enjoy them from the start. Later on feed them better upstream gear (w/tubes or ss option) and they will seduce you. Serious sound for a guy with out much to spend and inexpensive components to start with. For not to much of an investment and SCMCA's start and upgrade path options with this speaker pair i can't think of little money spent so wisely. Am also concidering his room as mentioned. I heard some of the other speaker choices and some are good but non better and most outclassed. But all advice given is excellent and recommend following. All choices given will be an approvement within your budget.

Two good routes are available to you. You could take that $1000 you have in your budget and buy speakers. Put off amplification for another year. Then, again spend $1000 on that area. This strategy will buy you a system several levels higher than spending $500 on either speakers or amplification. And, I would keep a keen eye towards used equipment. For $1000, you can buy the kind of speakers you can live with indefinitely. Lots to choose there. Only limited by your likes and dislikes. Alternatively, you could buy the amplification now(Anthem, Audio Refinement, Creek, Jolida, LFD, Musical Fidelity, etc.), and spend $120 - $150 redoing your current speakers. Vifa drivers, Solen caps, Ohmite resistors, and 14 gauge air core inductors(if you have coils...). While you are in there, lay down a bead of RTV silicone along all cabinet joinery. Also use a gasket between your drivers and cabinet. You WILL be surprised. And you'll get another two years out of the speakers. Either way, for wire, use AudioQuest Turquoise interconnect and Type 6 speaker cable. You'll get more mileage out of these two cheap cables than most people will admit. They are very neutral in sound, and will lend themselves to most directions you will be headed down the road. When the rest of your system is finalized, then you can move up to better cable.

No doubt, listening for yourself to as much as possible is great advice. Since you asked, though, I'd do this - I'd find a Linn Majik integrated amp. $500 should fit perfectly. It's a great little integrated amp by a top manufacturer, they're relatively easy to find, and it has a very musical sound to it. There are two versions - one with a phono input, one without. I'm quoting the one without. There are other choices in this price range that would be fine choices (many have been suggested), but IMO it fits your price range perfectly and is a top performer. Then, being broke again with no money burning a hole in your pocket, during the time you're saving for speakers, I would go listen to as many things as possible, savor the investigation, read about speakers, etc., such that when you do have the money, you know what to buy. And, I would allow for some flexibility in the price range you're saving for - ie, if you convince yourself that you'll need to spend $800 or $1000 to get what you really want, you'll already be in the mode that it's a ways off and less tempted to buy something just because it meets your price criteria.