Amps or Speakers which one to upgrade next

Well, upgrading both might be better, theoretically, but the question is would $7k plus the value of what he has now be enough for a jump ?

Great suggestions from Jond!   He did your homework.  I could have used that in school! 

IMO be careful if you are happy now, once you change one thing it will most likely soon snowball into another, then another and so on....

To quote Paul McCartney "happiness is a warm gun"

I think we all have a list of LPs we’ed like to acquire.

A speaker upgrade is one of the more noticeable and satisfying expenditures. You being a current Vandersteen user I would warn against considering another brand. Your ears have grown accustom to Vandersteen’s presentation and their above average attention to time and phase characteristics. After you’d get over another brands initial general difference in scale you’ll become aware something simply isn’t right.

If you’re compelled to a switch keep your Vandy’s around. As soon as you hook them back up to compare you’ll notice what I’m trying to describe.

Another consideration would be to add a pair of subwoofers to complement your 2ce’s such as a pair of Syzygy Acoustics or the Audio Kinesis Swarm. You’ll keep subwoofers long after the rest of your system has cycled out. In many rooms their location flexibility works much better than built in subs.

Have fun.

I've seen the same system use Rega RS3 speakers in jumps from 800$ rotel amp to 3k amps to 11K amp and the speakers were fully capable
of showing any and all  differences .

@pops Spending other peoples money for them is one of my favorite things to do! :) Even hypothetically lol.