Wheelset upgrade?
 

Not to sound like a weight weenie but how many grams less does a new set have to be to be a noticeable difference for the average rider? This would be for my wife and she's fairly sensitive to her equipment and can tell me when things feel different either bad or good (ex. she can tell when I've tuned her bike and in skiing when I added beveled edges to her skis--they tipped and turned easier).

Any recos? I'm after the best bang for the buck--she doesn't need Dura Ace C24s. The current wheels are Maddux R-3.0s at about 2000 g for the pair. The new wheelset would have to accept Shimano 9 speed. Thanks.

200 grams is something I notice sprinting and steep climbing. You could easily find wheels almost 500 grams less test would be very noticable.

I'd take a look at some Mavic Ksyrium Equipe or Elite S on ebay. You'd be looking at $300-500, and the weights would be 1600-1500g. The Mavic Ksyriums are a very common stock wheelset on bikes in the $3-5k bikes, so they're often upgraded soon after being new. But those are an upgrade to many others.

The Vuelta SLR wheelseet from Nashbar and lightest versions from other retailers are very good value. You will save about 500 g which is quite significant. And you can get them for under $300. Plenty sturdy enough. Sweet.