The issue of being complicated is half the fun (I like to play with these things). As for a major step, I'm going to be upgrading from some old NAD stuff & NHT 1.3's over the next two years on a rather limited budget. I don't want a too unbalanced system, and I don't want to sink too much into a CD player before letting the new formats work themselves out...
I feel the most important step is a new amplifier, likely an integrated, and I can retire my old NAD 3020. But the truth is, I see an upper limit to this thing around $5k for everything (Not including Home Theater).