Best way to spend my income tax refund

Start an IRA and think about the rest of us poor saps who still have to pay the theives at the IRS more money than they've already stolen from us.

One of the big reasons President Bush worked so hard to reduce the exhorbitant taxes paid by us is so that we would be prompted to save for more for the future in addition to being more fair to us. Our spending habits are already a bit excessive so, investing and saving is my first recommedation. However, if you have managed to put 10% or more of your income into an IRA this year then I guess you deserve to splurge a little bit on your refund. Assuming this is the case then I would heartily recommend the Magnepan 3.6's. A simply outstanding and, most of all, a fun speaker to own. I bet this was the main contributing factor in the Hovland/AR system that floored you. The speaker ususally is.

It's time to upgrade your CD-1. Check out Xindak SCD-2

I think the amp upgrade may be the way to go. My reasoning is that a TT is quite the continuous investment. TTs are really picky about setup and cleaning, and buying records is an entire hobby itself. You may really enjoy it, but going analog is not the soft option your enquiry implies it is. Think about it and have fun. (I just filed and am "investing" my refund in art :)

Talk to Steve McCormack about what the uprgade will mean to you, and what it will do to your system. He's incredibly cool, and it seems to me that he takes an earnest, honest approach when answering questions about his upgrades. I've heard his upgrades, to his already really good-sounding equipment, are fantastic--bringing more liquidity, musicality, and effortlessness to the sound of his equipment.

With analog, I've found that it brings an intimacy to your listening room that isn't always available on CD. When I bought my turntable, I had only 8 albums, but felt that the intimacy was worth the upgrade, despite that I wanted other upgrades in my system. I've since bought many, many more albums! :-)

I would say that you perhaps jump into vinyl, and save to do the upgrade later. I say this because if you currently feel that you want something new from your system, you can go all for getting an alternative approach to music playback. If you indeed enjoy the sound of LP-playback in your room, you can then think about what other components will do to the system as a whole.

Best of luck!