The first $500 goes on the walls

After you have moved your speakers around, which costs nothing, the next $500 goes on the walls. Not $5,000, not a full studio package: $500, at the first reflection points.

Those points were my biggest problem, especially with my seat so close to the back wall. There are two schools on how to treat them, one telling you full absorption and the other full diffusion. Neither is correct. Each room has its own properties, and you only find them one panel at a time.

What finally worked for me was absorption on the wall behind me and on parts of the front wall, with carefully positioned diffusers. I did not get there in one purchase. I got there piece by piece, step by step, and with no more than $500 at the start.

I expect that first $500 to do more than any cable or gear upgrade you are considering, and I say it as a man with more than $25,000 of cables in his system. The room gets its hundreds before the cables get their thousands. Wire can only carry what the room lets you hear.

Start with $500 and some patience. The cables can wait; the reflections will not.