Spend my money

Finding such a majority I feel could at least given me some feedback about what components might be worth upgrading first.

Won’t get that here. What you will get is a hodge podge of recommendations.You’d do as good to plaster a wall with a random assortment of Stereophile and start throwing darts. But don’t take my word for it, scroll up and read. What I said. ;)

The truth is everything matters. So take one thing at random- speaker placement. You could spend the rest of the day moving and measuring and listening and get that one thing dialed in just perfect because I can guarantee you right now its not, and just that one thing would be as good an improvement as any component your $500 will buy you. Or you could put that same $500 into finding a really good power cord. And everyone will howl but the truth is you will hear it and it will massively elevate your system. Or you could put a grand into a really good cartridge and be amazed that way too.

Its precisely because everything matters that no one can tell you what you want to know. Asking a bunch of random dudes is fine over a beer and there’s definitely a crowd here acts like that’s what this is, a bar, where you go to shoot the breeze. To answer your questions seriously we need to know quite a lot about you. Not your component list. You. What you like in the way of sound. What you want in the way of a system. Not just now but years from now.

There are for example two major schools of system building- One and Done, and Lifetime Achievement. One and Done you buy a bunch of stuff all nicely matched around the same level and that’s it you’re done for years maybe forever. Lifetime Achievement you aim to upgrade not just components but the whole system over the course of many years.

If you’re Lifetime Achievement then there are times when you will stretch to buy something like a turntable that is quite a bit better than people will tell you your system deserves. But it will last you a good long time and during that time you will gradually upgrade everything until maybe one day its the turntable that needs upgrading. Or amp. Whatever. Point is not what, but how.

Right now you are focused on what to buy. When you should be focused on what are you doing? Because once you know that a lot of these other things will fall into place.

So how would you spend $500?

Not like this. Last thing in the world I would ever do is ask a bunch of random strangers what to do with my money. Only slightly higher on the list is asking a bunch of random audiophiles how to make my system better.  

But oh well, you did ask what I would do. So here it is. I would listen to what I have, seriously and deeply, a very long time. While doing this I would make little adjustments. Perfecting speaker placement. Tweaking toe to hear the stage go flat and wide or deep and focused as toe changes. Perfecting listening location. Moving wires around listening for changes as they are raised above the floor or routed away from other wires.  

When not listening I would read, read, read. I would read reviews on everything I might want, paying special attention to listening impressions while almost completely ignoring technical specifications. (Speakers must be above 90dB/1w, MC above 0.3mV, or I pass. All the specs you need.) Read reviews, read user comments on sites like this.  

At your stage of the game I would also be doing everything possible to hear as many different components as possible. Preferably at home but in reality mostly at retailers. I would never, ever, visit a retailer and spend any time listening without asking them to change something. Could you put that power cord in so I can hear it? What about that interconnect? Listen and remember and compare- so this is this what the reviews were talking about??

Technically this is not what I WOULD do. This is what I ACTUALLY DO. Except I no longer visit retailers, sort of beyond all that. Really good, essential almost, for getting beyond the novice stage.

Ultimately, the good news is, rest assured whatever you buy, if it really is better you will hear it, it will elevate your system, and you will be happy. The bad news is it takes a whole lot of work to find the components that really are better, and not just different. A lot of components will sound exciting, or dynamic, or whatever catches your attention. Then after a while instead of the good stuff you notice the flaws. This is the real skill in listening evaluations, learning to differentiate between what is new and exciting and what is correct.  

It ain't easy. Its way harder than asking a bunch of random dudes what to do. But it does have one good thing going: it actually works.