High End System Building. How important is the matching, cabling and room? Thoughts ?

I understand that it could appear so indeed ...

I will just add for clarification , that no amount of acoustics will compensate for a bad cable limitations , nor the reverse the best cables and gear will not beat their room and replace acoustics ...But the improvement given with a top notch acoustic controls is huge and exceed almost all upgrade in % of S. Q. ... Even if not amount of acoustics will compensate for the improvement from a low cost amplifier to a top high end one ...

Then the fact that most people are limited by their possibilities to transform a living room had no choice to improve by upgrading the gear dont create 2 schools of thought here ... It just reveal the limits of some and the better possibilities of others ...

Acoustics rules at the end ...

I wish you the best new year ever ...

@mahgister , almost everyone who posts here claims to be knowlegeable; however, quite often their opinions appear to me to be 180 degrees out from each other. Therefore, I will continue to refer to different schools of thought.

I'm using $800 JBL Mini towers with a $20K Aavik u-150 integ......best sound I've had...all about SYNERGY !

@mbmi i totally understand. My speaker is a 14k speaker and my amp and dac are way more expensive in cost together but my system has great synergy. I built my system based on synergy and design elements. 

@mahgister  , I am not arguing with what you have typed above.

I may well be the only one on this thread (and one of the only few on this site) who freely admits he is not knowlegeable.

And I also believe that if I had my system in a properly treated room it would sound better than it does now.

But I also know that in two untreated (probably acoustically unfriendly) rooms, I have made equipment changes and auditions that changed the SQ.

I also know that I have read posts from people who believe that they are knowlegeable that state (often unequivocally) that:

if you cannot measure it you cannot hear it

the room is EVERYTHING and next to the room the speaker is EVERYTHING

good speakers make crappy electronics shine and good electronics do nothing for crappy speakers

everything except for room and speakers is snake oil

anyone who believes anything other than all of the above is a victim of confirmation bias.

And I simply refer to those as being one or more  school(s) of thought and I happen to subscribe to different schools of thought.  Not that I wouldn't like better speakers and a better room.  But I have heard very afforable speakers on electronics that were their match and electronics that were way above their level.  I have experienced what an upgrade to those speakers sounded like.  Then I experienced what upgrades and auditions of potential upgrades did for the new speakers.  And all in untreated rooms.  So I do not buy that the room is EVERYTHING.

I never say that the room is eveything if you read my post... I said acoustic is the prime factors which is a fact ...I add that no acoustic will compensate for a bad gear design too ...

All matter even cables...

But there exist and order of priorities:

Synergy between gear...

And pieces of gear cannot be compensated by acoustic... A bad amplifier will stay bad in a good room ...

The most important transformation once the system is synergetical and  relatively good and chosen by the owner will be ACOUSTICS ... Not an upgrade or a change in cable ...

I ONLY want to be understood ...

So I do not buy that the room is EVERYTHING.