Speakers or Turntable upgrade

@mustangjeff  All of the above suggestions pale in comparison. I have modified systems like yours and taken them to a whole new plateau with the Dirac Live room control in the MiniDSP and subwoofers. Taking the low bass out of you main speakers lowers distortion and increases headroom. Your system will go much louder, cleaner than it is now. Dirac will flatten the response of your system and room and give you total control over the sound with a very flexible digital equalizer.

I have no financial connection to any brands or stores. I have used the MiniDSP SHD is three systems including my own. There are two versions the SHD (Streaming, High Definition) and the SHD Studio. The Studio version does not have its own DACs for people who prefer to use higher quality DACs than are in the plain Studio. Because you need to buy two DACs with it, it is the more expensive option. Benchmark Media Systems uses a MiniDSP Studio and two of their own DACs in their show system. Dirac Live is a cloud based system. You measure your system with the microphone supplied with the unit and the measurements are sent over the net to Dirac Live's server that runs the calculations, generates the filters and sends them back to your MiniDSP. This is a great way to provide room control as you do not have to purchase the computer to do the math. The MiniDSP has a programmable subwoofer crossover in it. You turn the filter in your subwoofers off and in your case I would set the crossover at 80 Hz 48 dB.oct. In the equalizer section I would boost 20 up to 50 Hz 10 dB and taper down to 0 dB at 110 Hz. Then drop 20 kHz 6 dB with a very low Q so the the attenuation starts at about 1 kHz. 

If your room is the right size, consider either the Ohm Walsh 1000s or 2000s.  They are a fantastic rock speaker (they do every genre well).  Plus, they don't get that congested sound many speakers suffer from at higher volume.  Ohm offers a 120 day in home audition.

Speakers will almost always make a more noticable difference than anything else in a system. With your budget, there are many options especially if you buy used . Happy hunting.

I have the goldenear tritan 1 r in my home theater they sold Def tec and started goldenear.my Def tec are 7000sc great like the 1 r .the music  room has a used pair now. Good set of used speakers leave you cash for other upgrades latter. Enjoy the music. Tekton makes a good rock and roll speaker.stay healthy.

There are many ways to go with your upgrade(s).  That being said, keep in mind that speakers are always the business end of any sound system.  Spend some serious seat-time, if you can, with a pair of Revel F206.  I have no idea how these might match with your power source or your room acoustics, but they are hard to beat for the price. 

As for a TT upgrade, I would recommend you have a look at the MoFi Ultradeck with Mastertracker.  IMHO, you'd have to go into the 5K price point range to get a better TT than that.

Good Luck!