How much do you have to spend?

Yes you can easily put a good system for 10k. My friend spend 10k , Galion Amp tsa 75 $1500, galion tsp preamp $1805 , Focal floor standing speakers for 3.5!k, advance Paris cdp $1400.plus cables and cabinets and room acoustics.It sounds. It sounds good to my ears.He does not care about diminishing returns.

I divide my system approach into 4 groups. Analog, Digital, Power, and Speakers.

Digital is centered on a good DAC - $2k - Streamer and CD Transport - $1.5k

Analog - Table, Arm, Cartridge, Phono Stage - $4k ( about $1k each) new cart.

Speakers - $1k to $3k Used

Power/Pre - so many great used older high current Class A/AB - $2k

$10k to $12k total for a very. very, nice system.

There are diminishing returns and there are values.  When I bought my first external DAC years ago it was a Denafrips Ares II.  Made a huge change to my system.  I caught the bug.  Year and a half later I purchased the Pontus II at 2x the money.  Was the Pontus II twice as good as the Ares II; I would say not but was it worth it; I say definitely yes.  The improved sound was not linear to the increased cost but the improved sound had definite value to my listening experience.

I could make comparative equations across most electronics in my humble opinion.  How one would do this with loudspeakers is beyond me.  A $5k system can be really really good.  Would a $10k be twice as good or $20k be four times.  Probably not, yet does the increase expenditure increase the listening pleasure; does it add value to your experience?  

How interesting that this question—allocation of resources—came up the day after I figured this out for my system.  So, here is where I have ended up … so far:

Sources:                       16%

Preamp & phono pre:   17%

Power Amps:                20%

Speakers & Subs:         28%

DAC:                               3%

Power Mgmt/Cables:      5%

Shelving:                         4%

Cables—ICs/speaker:     7%

I can see that the DAC is the next area of possible improvement, if improvement is needed.

I started back into this hobby withKEF LS50 and a NAD 375BEE integrated, so I know where you are at. I upgraded to separates, Schiit Freya and Gumby DAC and Coda amp. And then bought KEF Reference 1 used. Trust me, you can massively improve on your system. Aim high.