New preamp or up grade my cartridge and or phono amp?

Add on question. I understand that my AV preamp is a kind of jack of all trades unit what I don't really understand how a preamp would change anything if I'm using the reference mode on my AV preamp?

WAF means, EVERYTHING stays in the large family room, unless I put a 2 CH system in a small 9X9 bedroom. So the preamp would have to have a HT bypass.  But I'm still kind of stuck on why the preamp is so important if I'm using the "Reference Mode" which is supposed to be a straight shot through. Unless it isn't. Not sure I can justify more than $3K extra for this upgrade. I'm about to retire and would prefer to stay married through this process(as in it wouldn't be any fun enjoying a really nice system in a studio apt.) 😅

ghdprentice/zlone. I understand what you are saying. Though I have a friend who went that route and his listening room wound up isolating him from the rest of the household. He then integrated his 2CH system into the family room HT system. His wife is now listening to more music. 

onhwy61- Your advice struck home, I really do like the sound of my system I believe for the money the Rega components play way above their price point. That being said I will have a few thousand to spend on my system as a retirement present. Right now I’m leaning toward upgrading my cartridge and phono amp or trying something like a Rogue preamp either a new RP-1 or used RP-5. Would either of these be SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Emotiva in Reference Mode? Or is there something else out there that would work (thought about the Parasound Hint P6 but that’s also a kind jack of all things). I really don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of room treatments, new cables, new speakers etc. So I’ll go with either a preamp with HT bypass capabilities or upgrading the phono cart and phono amp. If I’m lucky😇 maybe both

On a side note. With my friend moving his system out to the family room, not only has his wife started to enjoy listening to music more. He has had company over, seen his turntable and asked do albums really sound better. After playing albums and the same tunes digitally (either cd's or downloads), some agreed some didn’t. But ALL were impressed with how good a good system makes the music they like sound. Some have invested thousands of dollars in systems to replace their Sonus or Bluetooth speakers they THOUGHT sounded perfectly fine. One even became a full blown Audiophile with the investment of several tens of thousands of $ that entailed. I’m guessing none of that would have happened if his system was isolated in a spare bedroom(more people getting into our little hobby can’t be a bad thing). But I'm sure for some people that GREAT sounding system in a small room is EXACTLY what they want and or need, it just isn’t going to work for me.

Thanks for the info soix. Any suggestions on a good preamp with HT capabilities other than the Rogue RP-1 or RP-5. I’m thinking the Parasound Hint P6 would put me in the circumstances as the Emotiva just w/out the HT stuff

Streaming is actually something I am not interested in. I have about 850 albums on my music server. I've tried Tidal and Qobuz and barely used either one, no interest in checking out new music (I NEVER listen to the radio I have all the music I like). That being said a friend turned me to a group called "Lake Street Dive", check them out they are great(he struck out on other new stuff he wanted me to try). I even got rid of about half of my albums, I owned about 700, going through them one day I realized I was NEVER going to listen to the ones I got rid of. Now I have the ones I know I'm going to listen to(I'm one of those guys at the restaurant that orders the same thing because that's what I like).

I'm probably going to go with a Rogue RP-1 and Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC. 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and preamp info 

I purchased a Rogue RP-1 (thanks Mike/chedga, great guy would buy from him anytime, he even included a pair of Philco 1956 NOS tubes-haven’t tried them yet), and borrowed a Schiit Bifrost 1. Loving my 2 channel audio even more. My daughter got me the Dan Fogelberg Carnegie Hall CD. I’m not a huge fan of artist playing solo and this CD  wasn’t any different. Until I played it with the RP-1 WHAT A DIFFERENCE, will probably buy the LP. Same with LP's, tried the RP-1 phono amp using a Rega P6 with Ania MC cartridge can’t say how it sounded because there was hum I couldn’t get rid of. Went back to using the Rega MCFONO phono amp, no hum sounded GREAT. Not sure I’m going to go down the tube rolling rabbit hole or if I’ll upgrade the Bifrost to a newer model, probably going to buy the one I’m borrowing from my friend, if he’s interested in selling. Big thanks to “soix” for the dedicated preamp explanation.

I’ve now spent several months with the Rogue also added a Topping D90SE DAC (got a good price from a friend). Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions especially soix the explanation about passive preamps really helped. Anyone have any advice on how to hook up the subwoofer, I have a SVS SB3000 sub. My understanding is that to take full advantage of the LFE signal during movies I have to run a cable from the XMC-1 sub out to the LFE input of my sub. But then I can’t use the sub for 2ch listening. I’ve talked to Rogue they say I can run cables from the 2nd output of the Rogue to the sub line level inputs (disconnect the LFE cable) and when the Rogue is in HT bypass mode, it will pass the low level signal from the XMC to the sub. But will this signal be a true LFE signal (is there even such a thing?). My front speakers are powered with a 350 watt sub in each. Before I got the SVS sub I used them as dual subs worked well enough but I like the SVS sub much better. The only other solution I can think of is run both cables and unplug and plug in the ones I need depending on if I’m watching Movies/TV or listening to music. Or is there another option? One last thing now that I’ve heard the difference between the Emotiva XMC-1and the Rogue. I may have to do some contract work after retirement to finance more upgrades