New Audiophile - Upgrade Amp First or CDP First?

The whole soldering/tweaking thing is a bit beyond me, and honestly isn't an avenue I want to pursue as a novice. I'm already breaking my previous $1,000 budget as is with the equipment I plan to get which will be around $1,500 considering I get the Ah! 4000 used. With that I don't mind the upgrades as they'll likely already be installed new or if not it sounds like easy instructions to install, including upgrading the tubes. When it comes to the idea of soldering, I get pretty freaked out. For a $1,500 budget and for it being my first audiophile system, do the units I described really sound like bad choices? I decided on them after tons of research and suggestions from othes at audiogon on other threads...

Also I'm going to have to decide on a very affordable connecting cable and speaker wires at some point. I'm really starting from scratch here except for the fact that I've got the Paradigm speakers which I love...

Unfortunately, I don't have an audiophile store in my area or I probably would have started there. I live in Ashland, OR and I think the closest one is Eugene, about a 3 hour drive.

I know that at this price range my options are limited and it won't sound like truly high end gear, but I know it will be a vast improvement over what I have, and that's great with me for awhile. Hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere!

Thanks for the responses, and please keep them coming. :-)

Someone said:

"You could get a pretty good pre/amp/player combo from around $1500...In addiiton, I recently heard some of the new CEC stuff...CD player and integrated amplifier for $1600 NEW!"

Do you have any specific model numbers? That would help me a lot.

In terms of what kind of music I play and size room, etc.:

I play mostly rock: late 60's psychedelic, 70's progressive, 70's krautrock, general classic rock, folk, acid folk - that's 90% of my collection. I also play some free jazz, some ambient electronic, some 80's shoegaze - a handful of other genres, but that's mostly it. The room is pretty small, maybe 9X12 or so. It's my office/music room and it's somewhat crowded but has a decent amount of empty space as well. It's a perfect rectangle except for a small section that was made into a bathroom with door), so think rectangle with a very small rectangle taken out of it.

I don't recall the Philips model till I get home. It's a 3-cd changer with a burner on the other side which is why I bought it. That said, the burner stopped working years ago and the 3-cd changer unit has been deteriorating slowly for awhile - it skips a fair amount - definitely needs to be discarded and I'll probably just throw it away instead of replacing it when the time comes - I can't imagine anyone would want it with its faults.

In terms of getting lots of different information and opinions, yes, it's confusing, but I'm really not complaining. My learning curve at this point is pretty exponential.

Ok, so now where I'm at is I think I'm going to go with that Sony CE595 multi-disc changer and have the $750 Tube Research Labs do their magic on it. I really couldn't resist a way to get high-quality sound with a multi-changer. Thanks Strateahed for that!

Now I have to decide on an integrated amp. I guess the Outlaw might not be the best choice as I really don't need a tuner, and I can likely get a better quality used one, but now I don't know which one to look for. So many options...