Best Stereo Upgrade Value

IME, which is considerable, it’s the speaker/room synergy and its relationship to your listening goals and expectations. The rest are details. If you want the singer/songwriter and their acoustic guitar or piano to pay you a visit vs. wanting to relive your one concert hearing AC/DC or Led Zep live makes a huge difference.

Believe it or not, ny best "Bang for the buck" improvement was a $150 USB cable. Almost everything I listen to goes thru that cable. The difference is huge. Try one from Wireworld, Furuteck, or Zavfino.

Anyway, you choose the best source and speakers you can and then fill in everything in the middle. Tuning the room is additional direction. But not all of us can convert the room into a concert hall. Unfortunately. 

In the past two weeks I’ve had the opportunity to compare the Aries Cerat Incito preamp to my Jeff Rowland Corus. In addition, I compared Odin One speaker cables to my Clarus Crimson speaker cables. Although there were differences between the preamps and speaker cables, the most impactful upgrade wasn’t a component. 3ma Audio (Luis) took about four hours to setup my speakers. After selling my subwoofers, I moved my speakers around and I knew something was wrong with the setup. Luis used a combination of computer measurements, lasers, and his ears to setup my speakers. I ended up removing four GIK absorbers, moving the listening position four feet forward, and moved the speakers 11 feet apart, measuring from tweeter to tweeter. Overall a more significant positive impact compared to the differences between the preamps and speaker cables.

Every time I have done a component upgrade the sound improves.  It also costs a lot more money with diminishing returns.  So pick you weakest link and have fun.