What to upgrade first?

I think you need to upgrade both.

A lot of people will say that the speaker is the most important component but I tend to disagree. I think the front end is the most important followed by the line stage and amp. I have heard mediocre speakers (polk, psb) sound excellent with a good front end (CAL, Theta, Jeff Rowland.) For 500 bucks you could buy an excellent used amp (aragon, PS Audio, NAD) or integrated. Then you get into something like Vandersteen 2ce's for another 500 and Boom! close to Hi-Fi and light years better than what you've got now.

oh yeah-Don't forget about cables (another 200-400 bucks.)

One good purchase motivates the other and justifies the cost. Its not a painful purchase if the improvement is obvious.

-Karl

Dude, tell us what you have now.

Hey Danvetc wasup? Receiver is a 2x50 RCA Stereo Receiver STA-3850, Speakers are Optimus STS 600 61/2" Two-Way Mini Towers, 75W into 8 Ohms 55 Hz-20kHz. The CD player as mentioned above is a California Auduio Labs DX-2. I would appreciate your input.

OK, you have a big room to fill. First, maybe check out this site with lots of good info and then check the listings, http://www.goodsound.com. I also vote for speakers first. There are a pair of PSB Image 5T for $550. Also a pair of [discontinued] PSB 500i for $280, (will need stands though,) that would fill that room. You could check the PSB website for specs. PSB is, across the board, respected for what they do in their price range. If you bought the cheaper speaker and strrrrrrrrrrrretched your budget for a used Creek 4330 integrated amp, you would be in business. How do you say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step?” Good luck, and hey, you really can live for a month or two on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if you take a good multivitamin. Charlie.

hey danvetc, any adwantage to going to name-brand multi-witamins vs the generics? ;~)

regards, doug