A rookie with 10K, seeking advise


I'm new to the HiFi world. I listen to a lot of female vocal and classical music. I like both digital and vinyl. I am using a pair of Wharfedale Linton heritage and PS Audio Stellar Strata. 

I know this is too broad a question, but with 10K budget, where can I wisely spend my money? I don't mind tubes and I don't mind used either.

Any advise is greatly appreciated!

llid2

@llid2 It is not that their priority is "even higher than speakers and amp"...it is because power is fundamental and foundational and the linkages (synergistically) between components are critical.

The power side will pay dividends, no matter what you do in the future.

The stage you are at lends itself to learning and growing. I would put my focus on that...that is, learning and growing. Incredible results will follow.

I would shop speakers. I've never heard the Wharfdale Linton speakers so I am not making a value judgment on how they sound. 

While money doesn't always translate into better sound, the point of diminishing returns with speakers is, IME, much higher than the Linton's cost.

Both your PS Audio Strata and Terminator DAC are multiples more expensive than your speakers. Outside of acoustic treatment, speakers tend to have the most direct impact on what you hear. 

For 10K you can get some great speakers. Depending on what type of sound you prefer there are dozens of excellent companies. Salk, Daedalus, Spatial Audio, Magnepan, etc, etc.  

Thank you all for your patience with a rookie. You are so kind. @gladmo, I agree with you 100 percent on research thoroughly and move slowly. And, thanks a lot for the link. I find it really difficult to research thoroughly as I live in a small town with only 1 serious AV shop 150 miles away. That's part of the reason why I can't answer @soix question about the sound characteristics I'm looking for. I simply haven't had the chance to listen to a lot of HiFi equipment. In fact, may I ask how you guys do your research? Do you try to listen to everyone of them and compare before your purchase?

I guess I am just in a very early stage of my HiFi journey, like @david_ten said. All I recall was when I switched from $100 speaker to Linton, I was like WOW! when I switched from $500 amp to the Strata, I was like WOW! I am looking forward to one step further.

At a glance I would suggest you keep the Strata and sell the Terminator.  Assuming you also keep the Lintons you could then seriously upgrade your turntable/cartridge/phono preamp.  Or you could also sell the Lintons and get something like the Eminent Technologies LFT8c, they are a much better value then the Magnepans, and still upgrade some areas of your vinyl setup, get some good cables and an equipment stand to boot.