What should I upgrade first on my budget system?


Will Vincent Baldwin tube amp--25wpc

Coinciden Dynomites speaker 90db

Rotel CD player

Cheap PS Audio 5.6  preamp. 

Project Carbon turntable 

Thanks a lot, Cory in Montana

coryb

Thanks for your responses. I do have all anti cables for interconnects and a Morrel power cord. But I don't get DACs yet. Someone said I need a good DAC. Would I need one for my cd player and PONO and preamp? Thanks. 

Rotel, absolutely the Rotel.  Rega Apollo replacement perhaps.  It's the Rotel.  I'm sure of it.  Have fun.

But I don’t get DACs yet. Someone said I need a good DAC. Would I need one for my cd player and PONO and preamp? Thanks.

A DAC is only for CD and.or streaming.
Whether you need one, and whether it sounds better is another thing.

How do you like your phono side?

If neither digital nor phono is bringing joy, then it could be speakers… but I don’t know yours.

If in doubt, then my advice is to go slow and try to have some solid reason for making a change.

 

So far you have gotten room treatment, power to the room, power cords and conditioners, DACS, ICs (I do not recall speaker cables). But that is a lot of approaches without knowing whether they are addressing a way to mitigate or ameliorate some causal mechanism that may or may not exist.
(But the room treatment stuff is likely the safest bet… IMO)

How you are to make sense of the wide disparity of advice is beyond me to comprehend.