By far the biggest improvement I have experienced (since my ears are not as sensitive as some other people I've known) are the best-engineered recordings I can find. Reference Recordings, various SACD's (not all!), certain vinyl (again, some good, some bad).
And-"maybe" try to pick up an instrument from a music store and learn how to play. A decent classical guitar is easy on the fingers.
In any case, We had a very mediocre stereo in my parent's living room when I was growing up. A Fisher compact system- receiver with a BSR turntable mounted on top and a pair of Fisher 10inch/2way speakers, skinny wires and basic interconnects. But- with a well recorded album (my favorites were Columbia/NYPO/Leonard Bernstein) the difference was stunning. If that's not proof I don't know what is. Atlantic records were excellent also (Led Zeppelin). Over the next several years digital audio engineering may get even better. Personally I don't know what to make of a turntable/arm/phono stage/cartridge costing more than (let's say) ten grand. I own a VPI Aries-I with a Benz HO-MC and a Luckaschek phono stage. It sounds great and I'm sure there's much better out there to be had, but I don't have an extensive collection of records (maybe 500 or so). Honestly none of the stores I've visited had a SOTA analog rig set up to play, so I've been on the CD-player road to better sound most of my 25-30 years building my system. One thing IS for certain- the VPI "killed" the Thorens I had previously owned.
As far as a better system is concerned, it's also possible you might have to spend a LOT of money if you want a dramatic improvement instead of an incremental one. I found that out the hard way when I auditioned a $3500 Goldmund DAC over what I had.