The jump from D200 to D400

[Womaz]

My experience in the upgrade path was that speakers made a much bigger difference than the 200 to 400 route.  Of course that all depends on the starting point of the current speaker and how much you are willing to invest in a new pair.  An thick area rug with some underlay will help with some of the high frequency reflections.  It may be more beneficial to the coherency of the sound stage as opposed to taming the high end; likely it won't make it worse.

I would be looking to spend say 5 to 6k on speakers. It was always my intention to eventually go for the PMC26s as I love the 23s, but I would obviously look for other options