What to upgrade first?

It's kinda tough to call at that price point. To get the most for your money, you're probably looking at used gear, and there are some buys to be had in electronics out there, but I'd suggest trying to save up a bit more (closer to $1000) and then upgrade the speakers first. My logic is that $1000 can buy some very fine used speakers (and some quite decent brand new ones) that may show your current receiver to be better than it seems, but more importantly, will definitely show the true colors of any replacement gear you subsequently acquire. Even if you find an incredible deal on an amp right now, it's only going to sound as good as the speakers it's played thru - if they totally suck, well, what you think you gonna hear?

You are lucky to have the CAL - I really like their stuff.

chas

I think you need to upgrade both.

A lot of people will say that the speaker is the most important component but I tend to disagree. I think the front end is the most important followed by the line stage and amp. I have heard mediocre speakers (polk, psb) sound excellent with a good front end (CAL, Theta, Jeff Rowland.) For 500 bucks you could buy an excellent used amp (aragon, PS Audio, NAD) or integrated. Then you get into something like Vandersteen 2ce's for another 500 and Boom! close to Hi-Fi and light years better than what you've got now.

oh yeah-Don't forget about cables (another 200-400 bucks.)

One good purchase motivates the other and justifies the cost. Its not a painful purchase if the improvement is obvious.

-Karl

Dude, tell us what you have now.