A rookie with 10K, seeking advise

I guess my biggest question is I'm not sure which upgrade I should begin with. I feel like my front ends are already too good for my amp and speakers. If I begin with speakers, I'm not sure if the ps audio amp is good enough to drive them. If I begin with amp, I don't know if I can hear any difference given the speakers...

Well if you are not opposed to the idea of replacing the Strata, I would take that 10K and upgrade to a better amp/preamp combo. You already have a Terminator, so you don't even need the onboard DAC of the Strata. You might find this alone would give you quite an improvement even with your current speakers. And for sure it will be welcome at such a time as you do replace the Lintons.

Another option, since you have the digital side of things pretty well covered, is to upgrade the Rega and the PS Audio preamp. Honestly I could make a case for either.

Thank you again for all the suggestions! I am definitely not opposed to replacing the strata. In fact, given my taste of music, I thought about used AR REF3 (~5K here) and used Accuphase A50 (~5K on the music room). I just don't know if the upgrade can be heard with the Lintons.

i have 3 suggestions

1) the best harbeths you can afford (with correct stands), then a hegel amp to drive them - the best harbeths are very large though

2) the spendor sp100 (older or newer versions) is another excellent speaker that does vocals, jazz and classical oh so right - also a large standmount

3) then there are magnepans, get the best ones you can afford, provided you can place them correctly in your room (and leave money for the right amp though)

there is very good press on the new mission 770, but i have not heard them yet

all 3 mentioned above -- correctly set up in room -- will substantially outperform the wharfedale lintons in clarity, realism, and size/seamlessness of presentation

Thank you, jjss49, for all your suggestions! I looked at harbeths and I found magnepans appealing too. I looked into magnepan 3.7 before, don't know if my current Strata amp could be temporarily used on them and seek replacement one or two years from now.