Best upgrade option for this system?

I suspected that the preamp was my best upgrade candidate. I'm not familiar with tubes and will include them in my evaluation. I've noticed from my initial reasearch that not many quality preamps have tuners, and I like Creeper's suggestion to use the GTP-400 as a tuner source. But I would like to find a good preamp with volume remote if possible.

My local dealer is suggesting that I come in to his shop with my Adcom preamp and cd player to run a comparisson test with his Bryston BP6 or 25 and Conrad Johnson PV10. Not sure how valid the test can be since my Mirage speakers wont be involved.

The test will be valid enough for a rough idea. If you like what you hear in the shop, try to arrange to take the Bryston BP6 or CJ PV10 home to find out for sure how you like it in your own room and full system.

I'm also looking into the Moon P-5. Any thought on how well this unit would marry with the Bryston?

Not that familiar with the equipment you've got, though I've owned Adcom in the past. With this said, I'd invest in a good integrated tube amp, Almarro or PrimaLuna. You'll be very much surprised and, quite likely, won't want to return to SS. I never believed this could be true, even for me, until I decided to jump into tubes.

I ran the comparrison test between my Adcom GTP-400, Bryston BP6 C and Conrad Johnson 14LS2. The difference between Adcom and Bryston was astonishing, made the highs much more inviting and brought out the midrange nicely.

The move from the BP6 C to the CJ 14LS2 was more subtle, but I did like the way it held the low frequencies lower and seemed to widen the soundstage.

I fell for the Conrad Johnson! But unfortunately it's a bit out of my $2000 enveloppe. This was my first audition, I plan to keep researching and continue testing until I'm ready to take the leap.