A mistake spending too much on amplification?

Cutting to the chase here, in my opinion speakers make the most difference.

Could not agree more with this statement. $2K on speakers and more than $10K on amps, source, interconnects & speaker cables is a typical but much misguided approach in audiophiledom. At the very least, half the system cost is best spent on the speakers, IMHO.

Here is the price breakdown (all purchased used) of my current system:

CD player $1000
Amp $600
Speakers $400

Your System list prices indicate that your speaker is roughly half the new cost of the equipment...a balanced investment, IMHO. Great that this beats many of the +$10K systems you tried. Synergy and careful selection for the room and musical tastes can do a lot!

Reubent,

Thx for the update. Wow, that is a lot of change in just over a year. How much longer will you stick with the current setup - or have you found Audio Nirvanna?

I'm driving $1,400.00 monitor speakers with $11,000.00 worth of amp/pre-amp. Oh yeah, and $3,450.00 in wires.

Tomryan,

FWIW, IMHO, Assuming that you already have a great amp/pre-amp and source (at that price it most certainly better be good).....then, on your next move towards upgrading, consider to sell you cables and upgrade your speakers. Physical limitations of transducer & box design mean that your speakers and their interaction with the room will always be the weakest link. Speakers improve dramatically above $1500 and again dramatically above about $4000, like anything there are diminishing returns above mega high prices ($10k+), but investing more than twice the amount in wires compared to speakers is quite likely limiting your overall system performance. Wires are wires and it sure is nice to have good wires but, IMHO, lamp cord is 99.9% ok most of the time, and it is what people used for decades until this cable thing became a big market.

Tomryan,

FWIW, have you considered the possibility that the high output impedance of your tube amp might be factor in how different cables sound when coupled to a speaker of varying impedance?

When impedances are quite close the combination will tend to behave like a mild crossover/filter, creating some mild equalization. This generally becomes quite audible at low input to output impedance ratios and would make different cables sound different, especially with a 4 ohm load.