I am a lifelong audiophile who has upgraded and downgraded many times and I’m on a journey to upgrade to my last system. Over the next couple of years I plan on getting my shangrila amp and speakers. Where to start is the question. I currently have a Marantz PM7000n integrated amp driving KEF LS50 passives. I can only afford to upgrade one at at time. At least I can only convince my wife to upgrade one at a time. I know what I ultimately want in an amp and speakers but I’m conflicted on which to attack first.

The argument to upgrade the Marantz is that it’s slightly low power and may not be able to wake up better speakers if I upgrade the speakers first. I don’t want to bother with speaker matching the Amp because my future amp will drive a team of horses. So, I’m buying the speakers meant for my next amp regardless. So if I buy nice speakers will that be frustrating knowing they aren’t sounding as they should.

If I upgrade the amp my fear is that there isn’t much left in the tank for the KEFs. How much better can they sound if I give them a better amp with more power, soundstage and separation? The Marantz is actually quite accurate, and power aside, will the kefs be able to resolve a better amp.

Any advice is welcome.