We are chasing audirvana. That which cannot be grasped but only experienced by allowing the here and now. As soon as tou start chasing tou will lose it once again.

I notice it happens when I start to get sick.

The answer is: It depends.

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I can get an integrated amp made in 2022 from supermarket for less than fity bucks and I bet it will sound terrible in coparison to a thirty year old second hand amp in the same price category that has been made well and will sound way better.

Good amp design is not necesarrily all about components or technology. It is also about compromises and which compromises have been made where.

Another example: I recently finished building my own integrated amp based on EL34 tubes. Though it sounds “fantastic”, it is a pain in the ass to maintain long term and gets hot in relation to a solid state amp in the same price category. It is also not easy on the elctricity bill.

I believe it all comes down to the design philosophy used, which translates to the parts, circuit design and trade-offs that are made.

The speakers are very budget for just ten quid haha. I you like them by design I can highly suggest the Piega P4L MK2 as your new speakers. They are a steal scondhand (most people appartently do not know Piega). I doubt you will find a better sounding speaker in the sub €200 euro price range (secondhand ofcourse)

I have seen multiple fora indeed about improving the Marantz which ofcourse can be done. It is the DAC itself which defines the audio qauality. Do not forget the DAC also contains an amp to generate a line out signal which will feed into your pre amp. You will notice the mods always talk about improving those parts.

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I doubt if it will be worth it unless you really dig the design of the Marantz and want to keep it at all costs. It would be way cheaper buying any CD player / Playstation with a digital output and put a solid DAC behind it. Ideally with reclocking functionality so that jitter from the source will not be an issue.

If you were to spend the time and effort I would suggest just building your own tube amp. There are multiple “good designs”. I might even share you my own for a Class A single ended EL34 tube amp.

Improving sound usually involves changing circuits, resisors and capacitors. This would be harder on the NAS 3020 since it is more complex than a “simple” single ended tube amp.

If you were to “upgrade” I believe the biggest change in the NAD3020 would be achieved by replacing the transistors with better ones and replacing the (big) power capacitors.

The part in the CD player that has the mosts impact on the quality would be the Digital to Analog converter. There would be simply no upgrading here as this is an integrated circuit. You would be better of buying a better CD player.