$3000: upgrade Tyler Linbrooks or amplification?

Stltrains, I'll be looking forward to hearing about the D1's, especially since you will have the LLS' on hand for an A/B comparison. I suspect from the generalized description that Ty may have made a couple of important changes. They sure look better IMHO.

It replaced a highly modded over many years ARC SP6B Which uses 6 12AX7s. But this pre was just an ARC by nameplate. The guy I bought it from was a fanatic -he wanted a wire with gain. I thought that's the ticket the proverbial wire with gain. I tried it in my own system at home and was impressed with it's nuetrality.
About 3 months later I started thinking I could use a little warmth and a more tube responsive pre. The gain was ridiculously high. The legendary phono stage caught every nuance that a note of dust can... it sounded like firecracker. If any one wants a......

I've never heard your amp, but in general I think the differences in amps and pre-amps is smaller than most audiophiles imagine, once you get to a certain level of build quality. Speakers are another matter. That said, I'd be reluctant to spend 3k on speakers I couldn't audition in my home (though I did just that when I bought by VR4 HSEs sight unseen, or sound unheard--go figure). And my own opinion, if I might respectfully dissent from Newbee's view, is that you already have the only goal you'll ever need: a better sounding audio system. In my own experience, I've had trouble hearing deficits in my system until I heard something I liked better. Good luck.

Stewie, For the sake of argument, IMHO if you have no reference to what 'better' means (to you) how will you ever know when to stop up-grading. There is always going to be something 'better' on the horizon even if in reality its only different.

IMHO, if I didn't make it clear, if you don't have a goal, how do you know when to stop? When you run out of money?

I'm always concerned for folks who ask for reccomendations for new speakers (or anything) but are unable to articulate what they don't enjoy about thier present speakers or their system. I've been there, done that, and never was really satisfied until I came to an honest assessment of what I wanted to hear, not what some one else said was what they loved, was SOTA, etc. Arriving at that stage it was much easier to read opinions and get some value, and sometimes direction, from them.

BTW, for those folks with defined audio expectations, and who have developed critical listening skills, I think I would disagree with you that the electronic's are not so important. IMHO, once you have found speakers that 'can' satisfy you in your room after they have been properly set up, the electronics are going can make or break real long term 'system' satisfaction.

A good analogy is, perhaps, represented by the fellow that auditions say your VSA's at a dealers or friends home. And thinks how magnificant they are. He get them home and is are disappointed. Why?

Well, assuming you have the same room, so to speak, and you have carefully set them up, guess what - its the electronics that are making the difference.

The speakers are what they are, and IMHO, it is often far easier to tune a high quality set of speakers with appropriate electronics, than it is to find a speaker that matches your electronics and gives you long term satisfaction.

But obviously that opinion is just the result of my experience. YMMV.

Newbee, it may be that nothing hangs on the difference b/t our points of view. I'll just say that--to take a concrete example--I didn't know the bass I was missing in my Kef Reference 3s until I heard the VR4s. On the other hand, the Kef's had a more seamless integration across the frequency range, at least in my room. None of these "problems"--very luxurious problems to have, of course, in our first-world experience--was evident until I heard the speakers side by side. When to stop upgrading? No one's been able to figure that one out, but money's as good an answer as any. As for the amp, pre-amp business, I'd just say that, all things remaining equal, a 3k upgrade in speakers is much more likely to make a difference in sound than a 3k upgrade in amplification, assuming that we start with something pretty good.