Upgrade suggestions sought

Superfly, I had the NHT 2.5's a few years ago. Also in an HT type setup. They are nice speakers in many ways, but I found myslef listing to the speakers rather than enjoying the music.
I bought a pair of Von Schweikert VR3's and that was a huge improvement. Music was more, well, relaxed and enjoyable. Less glare. For the HT side, they have deeper bass than the 2.5's so I think you will enjoy them in that regard as well.
The VR3's got me going full bore into audio. Soon after, I dumped the HT.

You can find these for under $1k, and if you really like them you can send them to Albert for a total overhaul.
I went from the 3's to the 4's, and last year I had the 4's rebuilt.

Settle you speakers first, then look to other component changes.

KP

Get rid of those acurus amps. I auditioned them about 5 years ago and thought they were some of the worse sounding (brittle, bright) amps that I had ever heard. Could not understand this because their intergrated amp (DIA100?) sounded pretty good for the money.

I use a Parasound amp and processor in my home theater system and I just replaced all my cabling with Signal Cables. I found this replacement to be the "biggest bang for the buck". Best of all it did not break "my bank" and I was able to purchase some music DVDs with the money I saved. Good luck!