Help me upgrade my beginner system!

I also owned a Peachtree Nova 150 a few years ago. Ditching that amp and going to a modestly-priced Parasound A23 was a huge jump in sound quality. If you can afford it, look into Parasound HINT 6 Halo integrated amp. You can also search for used models as they are very popular and show up in the used market often. I am confident you will love the ’upgrade’.

Your speakers are quite good and will scale with better downstream components. If I was in your shoes, my upgrade path would look like this ...

1. Get rid of Peachtree Nova and replace with something like Parasound HINT 6 Halo integrated amp and DAC combo.

2. Replace your subwoofer with REL -- preferably T7x if possible. Again, readily available in the used market. However, after upgrading the amp you might not even feel the need to upgrade the sub.

3. Replace speakers ... this should be the last option. IMO, you should space out the upgrades with at least 4-6 months in between, i.e. get the new amp and live with it for at least 4-6 months, and so on and so forth.

A decent surge protector is different from a power conditioner and yes we all need one.  We just had a power outage that tripped the protectors in all 3 of my systems.

Everything survived, thankfully 

Definitely NEED to replace the cartridge. But most importantly you should spend all the rest of the money on new or used better speakers. Power conditioner is a total waste of a plug at your level. 

Very appreciative of all the passionate advice! I'm going to contact my local store and send them my trade-in list and go from there, as well as get their recommendations. At this point, I've not ruled out room treatments, a speaker upgrade, and/or an integrated amp upgrade.

This will probably take a number of weeks to work through but I'll definitely report back on what I got and the results.

There is NOTHING wrong with the DAC in your Peachtree.  It sounds better than you think.  Of course, if you're hell-bent upon spending money, then by all means do so, but you'll be throwing it away.   I run the early model Peachtree DAC-iT.  Your amp will be running the newer iTx version.

I once had a chance to do a serious comparison with the Schiit Yggy and the PS Audio DirectStream.  The consensus that day was that the Schiit was well...  Most there actually preferred the Peachtree over the PS Audio.  I liked them both and felt the PS might be a little better, but only a little.  And certainly not $6000 worth better.

Your Peachtree amp has plenty of muscle.  The rest of your system is really quite good.  Not extreme hi-end, but will work just fine thank-you.  You would have to spend a LOT of money to improve on your turntable.

As for speakers, well the sky's the limit.  If your current speakers are on stands, then a modest floor standing loudspeaker won't take up any more floor space.  What would be a very good match, be a significant upgrade from what you run now, and would be dirt cheap for what you'd be getting are some used SEAS Thor speakers I saw on a Canadian website, or a pair in Arizona.  They would work great with your Peachtree.