Save, don’t borrow. <---- best advice.

Frankly, individually it’s worth more than $300

If you are into or open to legal gummies… I can also high-ly recommend THC-O. That one in particular interacts with music listening like nothing else I’ve tried.

Proper placement is the best thing you can do to make psychedelic music holographic. It’s also the cheapest upgrade you can make. Look into it – it’s totally worth it.

Not ideal but not the end of the world either.

Humble?

Depends on the speaker. I usually leave them off unless I want to protect them. But if a speaker seems too bright or harsh, then I’d put them on to soften the sound a bit.

Get a preamp with tone controls?

Preference is often what you are used to. Your ears do adjust over time, so give it some time. If after a couple of weeks it still seems lifeless, start to make some minor adjustments, or simply boost/cut the blunter bass/treble tone controls (if you have those).

Who cares what it looks like if it sounds terrible?

Where do you live? I live in Ohio and my room and speaker response as well as my ability to hear it are most definitely affected by changes in temperature, humidity and barometric pressure.