What should I upgrade first on my budget system?

I would look to upgrade the preamp first to a tube preamp.  Organ amps make wonderful audio amps because of the heavy duty transformers they use and the fact that Will Vincent made it, I’m sure it’s an amazing power amp.

Also, I don’t subscribe to the Ivor Tieferbrun philosophy to get the best sources possible because everything else is downhill from there, although it certainly makes a great deal of sense.

I once heard at an audio show an incredible sounding setup by Robin Wyatt, Robyatt Audio that featured an amazing Italian SET amp being played with AER Lamhorn single driver speakers using very run of the mill sources - a Sony close n play tangential TT, a first gen Technics transcription CD player, and a Dyna FM3 tuner.  After hearing this setup, I became a firm believer in great electronics and speakers could make mediocre sources really shine.

A Music Reference RM5 mkII is an excellent sounding preamp that mates well with lots of gear.  I owned one for 5 years and partnered it with several tube and SS amps and it always delivered.  I’ve seen them selling in the $5-700 range and I greatly prefer a tube preamp to go with a tube amp, instead of a SS pre with tube amp.  A tube pre with a SS amp is a preferable combo than the other way around.  Just my $.02.  Thanks.

Thanks for your responses. I do have all anti cables for interconnects and a Morrel power cord. But I don't get DACs yet. Someone said I need a good DAC. Would I need one for my cd player and PONO and preamp? Thanks. 

Rotel, absolutely the Rotel.  Rega Apollo replacement perhaps.  It's the Rotel.  I'm sure of it.  Have fun.

But I don’t get DACs yet. Someone said I need a good DAC. Would I need one for my cd player and PONO and preamp? Thanks.

A DAC is only for CD and.or streaming.
Whether you need one, and whether it sounds better is another thing.

How do you like your phono side?

If neither digital nor phono is bringing joy, then it could be speakers… but I don’t know yours.

If in doubt, then my advice is to go slow and try to have some solid reason for making a change.

So far you have gotten room treatment, power to the room, power cords and conditioners, DACS, ICs (I do not recall speaker cables). But that is a lot of approaches without knowing whether they are addressing a way to mitigate or ameliorate some causal mechanism that may or may not exist.
(But the room treatment stuff is likely the safest bet… IMO)

How you are to make sense of the wide disparity of advice is beyond me to comprehend.