Best upgrade for the money ?

Room treatment and "many" hours spent on speaker placement and equipment isolation techniques. Someone at this site has mentioned a software speaker placement program that retails for around $100.00. Improving these three key factors will leave you dumfounded at how good your present equipment can sound.

PS: I have been applying these teqniques to our cheap little $500.00 mini system (with Polk RT15 speakers) in a spare room that is at this stage pretty much a blank slate and the results are amazing. If only I had this much leeway in the living room (regarding placement) with the main system.

I'd say that your speakers may be the weak link (depending on the model). There are a pair of used Meadowlark Kestrels for sale. Some thing like that might be a good upgrade.

Kuryl: Take a look to the power side. power cords used for 150-180 for master couplers or lower with MIT Z cord II are WAY better power cords compared to most standard ones ... A dedicated power circuit+grounding rod is an excellent cost/performance upgrade if you throw in a Monster HTS 2000 better yet and if you play with room placement of your equipment racks and vibration control on the pre, CD player and your amp you´ll be surprised how much you can still wring out of most gear pieces..... Regards

The Micromega Stage 2 is a week link. I used to have the Micromega Stage 6. which was very nice, and currently have the Micromega Premium DVD2, whcih is awesome ! It is a great cd player too, and an even better audio transport coupled with the Bel Canto DAC-1. Remember that the Stage 2 was the entry level unit in the Stage lineup, and is an "old" piece my today's standards. I've seen a couply Stage 6's go for about $500. Consider looking at a better source, or even maybe an outboard DAC. $800 can easily get you a Bel Canto or Perpetual Technolgies DAC on the used markets. The EAD UltraDsic 2000 cd player is also a very nice unit and goes for less than $1K used. The Rega Planet also goes for cheap too. - Andy