What improvement came first?

Everything asap.

Further, OK, so this speaker can tell me the difference between a Parasound and Krell. Whoopee. Is that going to tell me anything about how it plays? Rarely is the answer here yes.

As I was discussing in another thread, the single piece of gear which makes you stop buying other gear tends to be good room acoustic treatments. They will outlive your gear, and you’ll be happier with a wider variety of gear, and stop going the cable and tweak merry go round. Get yourself a great sounding room, and you’ll settle into a great system rather quickly. Without this, you’ll be churning amps and speakers forever.

Amen!

I will only add also to the importance of the audio system and the speakers in the room acoustical embeddings, the mechanical embedding and the electrical grid embedding....

The point you make is the same i made, except with the acoustical treatment and control, i add the important mechanical and electrical treatment and controls...

Most people underestimate completely acoustic and overestimate the rest of the audio system, without knowing that there is no such thing wich is the sound of speakers and amplifier without any room nor any electrical noise level grid, and without any vibrations nor resonance...

An audio system without any embeddings exist almost like" a knife without blade nor handle" (Lichtenberg), it is a pure blueprint design in the head of an engineer. Any "working" audio system with the speakers is embed in a house and in a room....

Anyway thanks for your always wise and informed observation.....

Merry Christmas to all....

Of course there were speakers up to and past the level of the Linn.
Speakers will determine the overall sound of a system more so than any other component. You can not choose an amplifier without first knowing what speaker you are going to drive. Everything else is minor in comparison particularly if you are sticking with digital. Analog front ends, the tonearm, cartridge and Phono stage will of course determine how vinyl sounds but still not as significant as speakers. The key is whether or not you are happy with the speakers you have or plan to up grade them. If you intend on upgrading them do that first before spending money on other equipment. If you are happy with the speakers and do not intend on upgrading them than is up to you to evaluate the rest of your gear to determine where an upgrade might be most valuable.

Rudy Van Gelder and other recording engineers in the 50s often had to roll off the lows at ~100Hz in the final master because the turntables of the era couldn't handle the bass below that w/o skipping.  The vinyl playback technology had to evolve to facilitate a wider dynamic range.  This is one reason the remasters by Kevin Gray and others (using original analog tape) sound so fantastic...they opened the pipe back up as modern gear can fully handle it - the results are often stunning.