New Audiophile - Upgrade Amp First or CDP First?

Someone said:

"You could get a pretty good pre/amp/player combo from around $1500...In addiiton, I recently heard some of the new CEC stuff...CD player and integrated amplifier for $1600 NEW!"

Do you have any specific model numbers? That would help me a lot.

In terms of what kind of music I play and size room, etc.:

I play mostly rock: late 60's psychedelic, 70's progressive, 70's krautrock, general classic rock, folk, acid folk - that's 90% of my collection. I also play some free jazz, some ambient electronic, some 80's shoegaze - a handful of other genres, but that's mostly it. The room is pretty small, maybe 9X12 or so. It's my office/music room and it's somewhat crowded but has a decent amount of empty space as well. It's a perfect rectangle except for a small section that was made into a bathroom with door), so think rectangle with a very small rectangle taken out of it.

I don't recall the Philips model till I get home. It's a 3-cd changer with a burner on the other side which is why I bought it. That said, the burner stopped working years ago and the 3-cd changer unit has been deteriorating slowly for awhile - it skips a fair amount - definitely needs to be discarded and I'll probably just throw it away instead of replacing it when the time comes - I can't imagine anyone would want it with its faults.

Sounds like you answered your own question! If your player is not working properly why would you not replace it first.

Sounds like you are at the same place I started a little over a year ago. My suggestion: upgrade the amp and cabling first. As suggested earlier, unless you're listening to the radio it's maybe not worth getting the receiver. If your receiver has pre/outs, you can use it as a preamp/processor. I started with Outlaw's 2200 mono-blocks, and changed out all I/C's, power cords, and speaker cables with Signal Cables gear (signalcables.com). The Silver Resolution Series is reference level. Check them out. They're audiophile quality at affordable prices. Next, you could start out with either the Sony CE595 or Sony 2000ES changer ... $150 or $400 respectively. The 2000ES is quite nice as a stock unit. Later you can upgrade to another level with any of the mods suggested in your CDP thread. This changes will take you a long way.

In your situation, for $1600 budget, here is what I would do if I were you. I would get a new amp and improve the CDP at the same time. I would keep the Philips CDP and buy a Benchmark DAC-1 to improve its sound. The DAC-1 is a hot item but I have seen it for sale here for about $750 used. That leaves you $850 to spend on the amp. Since the DAC-1 has a preamp built-in with volume control, you can just buy a power amp and have much more choices. I have seen quite a lot of great amps for around $850 listed here. For example, right now, there is a Quad 909 listed for $825, a Jeff Rowland 102 for $875, a Bryston 4B-NRB for $875, Classe CA-101 for $850, etc... Any one of them will do and they are all great amps.

This setup will sound considerably better than getting the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 or the Outlaw RR2150 and it will open up much more possibilities in the future.

I'm confused? A home theater receiver with a nice 2 channel cd? Do you have another DVD to use?
My opinion, the CD player is wayyy nicer than the Outlaw and perhaps too much. In my opinion, the Outlaw will limit the sound that the Tjoeb is putting out. A denon receiver will do a better job. You really should look for a pre-amp with 2 channel direct if you want to use the Tjoeb. And that's with a basic Tjoeb. To even come close to hearing the upgrades, you will need a nice pre-amp (Anthem, sunfire, Adcom, Rotel or the likes...).
Try the balanced outlook: Spend more on the receiver and less on the CD? How about a nice Denon unit with a pre-amp/amp combo or even a higher end receiver? If you then decide that you are missing something sonically, you can easily have the denon upgraded as much as you like. Also, the Denon will play CD/DVD/SACD/DVD-A and more!