Slow website, but super optimized - DOM elements or hosting?

[GreenGecko]

Shared hosting = forget it when you're after performance, and this one looks either overloaded or poorly configured, and you should be able to get managed WP hosting for a similar price ( as it doesn't sound like you've got the necessary skills for DIY hosting - apologies if I've misunderstood! ). A VPS should be sufficient.

Whilst a caching plugin always helps, it does make sense to have a server with the ability to at least deliver in a decent time with a low load... and then improve with a cache ( I like W3TC but some seem to be giving it a hard time at the moment ).

It might help to look at reducing the file count - further combining css and js files ( if that doesn't break anything ) is something that W3TC does well. Implementing sprites may help too.