Most Important?

You need to balance everything. If the plan is to upgrade, then have an end plan for where you want to be.

My initial reaction was "get the best speakers that you can" but i think that I may have changed my mind.

I don't think that anyone has mentioned it, speakers are extremely important, but at a certain point, they start making inferior upstream components sound worse, much worse, so a "better" speaker with bad sources will sound worse.

In my personal experience, I can take my main speakers out of the system ($20,000 speakers) and put in a pair of speakers that I rebuilt and have about $700 in and the system still sounds wonderful. These speakers were about $2000 or so in the 1980's and are not typical "$700" speakers, but certainly a fraction of the price of the mains. But if I keep the mains in and take out the sources and replace with cheaper gear, it starts to sound bad in a hurry.

That being said, balance is very important. Going back to the initial question, try to have a certain level in mind and shoot for that with the whole system. If you need to continually upgrade to be at the end point, buy on Audiogon so that a good portion of the depreciation is already accounted for.

This is how I look at it.

Speakers
Amp
Preamp
Digital Source
Cables
If you want great sound....there's really a fine line between them....but speakers first.

Great imput gents. Ok now that we have pondered my question gents check out my system and advised whats the weakest link. Also do you guys concur that speakers cables are paramount in a great sounding system ?

They are all equally important!!! As with anything else you must find a good BALANCE.

As I drive my modded 5 series Bimmer at 130mph going into a corner--which is most important-- tires,suspension, brakes, or throttle response??
Answer: They all better be equally as good or my ass is gravy!

Get the picture?

Pepe