If you’ve read Jim Smith’s book, "Get Better Sound", he discusses the importance of the room, and what a big part proper tuning and acoustic treatment of the listening room makes in getting the most out of one’s hifi system. People like the brilliant Leslie Ann Jones have better ears for and more knowledge about good sound reproduction than I ever will. I can’t hear what they hear.
As an audiophile for more than 30 years, with a limited budget, I’m frustrated by all the snake oil out there or things that may get you an incremental improvement of fractions of a percent (don’t flame me, but $10,000 speaker cables, or the $72,000 Soullution DAC just reviewed (by Valin) in the new AbSound...really? I guess if I had >$500k to spend.)
So, I am always looking for biggest bang for the buck, and next will be really properly tuning my room. FWIW. I am always looking for superbly recorded music too. One gold standard for me are those by Water Lily, like Ry Cooder's exquisite "A Meeting by the River." (mics and gear by Tim de Paravicini, iirc).
https://guitar.com/review/album/the-genius-of-a-meeting-by-the-river-by-ry-cooder-and-vishwa-mohan-b...