Ok this will be a good thread.

Tok20000, I get what you're saying...but still say the source is the foundation of a great system, and without one you may have a great-sounding system, but it will fall way short of a system where one, or more of the other components are compromised. Your scenario only goes to reinforce that in my mind. It shows how all of the downstream components are far more interdependent upon one and other to sound their best, whereas the great source will remain a constant, and relys only upon the material (CD's/LP's etc.) you play on it (as well as your two good ears and the room, room treatments, electricity, achohol consumption, ambient temperature, and the phase of the moon, for all those who insist on pointing out details beyond the original question). The great source will remain a great source no matter what downstream components you put with it, and you can tailor the sound specifically to your tastes by altering those downstream components, especially, and yes then I would indeed START with the speakers. A great speaker will not necessarily remain sounding like a great speaker, and is very dependent upon the upstream components you match it with. I agree, it makes little sense to spend your budget way out of balance and buy a great megabuck source, only to play it through Fisher Price components. Balance and synergy are key here, as I'm sure you'd agree! If I take your scenario, and throw it out of balance the other way, and spend megabucks on some fabulous horns, as you suggested, that sound great at the dealer, but like crap on your high-school summer-job system....Well, then you could just as likely spend time and money mismatching and misunderstanding the potential of those horns, and maybe even find out that horns don't necessarily match up with all of your musical tastes, or to your room treatment, etc. You are locked in and your only option is to sell the horns for something else. But spend the same megabucks on a Wadia, or an Audio Aero, (simply examples and not a standard) and you will likely keep that component no matter what you end up with downstream. Yep, digital technology does change rapidly, but, at that level of performance, there is little out there that I'd imagine you wouldn't be happy with in 5-10 years time. Unless you are one of the hopelessly obsessed, in which case you will never be satisfied anyway, so enjoy what you've got if you can! With the best digital approaching, if not equaling analogue at this point (OK, that's a whole other thread which does not bear repeating) where else can you go in two channel? The most higlhly rated and raved about AudioNote DAC, which some hold to be a reference standard, is simply playing Redbook CD's and is outperforming all those oversampling "developments" that have been dominating the current market. Of course one could argue that the AudioNote is a "development" itself! Coincidently, per the Tok20000 example, I do happen to own and enjoy a similar system as you describe: Quicksilver 300B SET mono amps putting out 8wpc driving Klipsch LaScala horns. My source is certainly not state-of-the-art, but it sounds damn good, and when I did a direct comparison to much more expensive (and more contemporary) Wadia and Cary units, the differences were not siginificant, nor impressive enough to warrant the huge price difference (IMHO). I use a Muse Model 5 transport and Model 2+ DAC with a Muse proprietary L2S connection between them...decent units, but old news in todays market. Still they hold their own against current offerenings, and even with analogue I'd say. Now I could use that same Muse source/DAC in virtually any system and be assured that it was moving all the information I wanted it to to the downstream components. Synergy with a source is seldom a problem (though it can happen, I'm sure). If I didn't like the sound I would much more likely look at one or more of the downstream components than I would the source. But take those LaScala's and put them with a megabuck, megawatt SS amp and it may likely be a waste of some good horns and a good amp to no good ends (again, IMHO, and YMMV).

Perhaps what is breaking apart this thread into two predominent camps is that there are two questions being asked here. I'm not sure here, but perhaps more would agree on this scenario:

1. What is the most important part of a good two channel system?

Answer: The Source

2. Or what has the biggest impact on overall sound?

Answer: The speakers.

That is, if "overall sound" is to be taken to mean the way the kind of overall sound the system produces (for example Euphonic vs Analytical).

Does that all make any sense, or am I beating a dead horse at this point?! Giddyup!!!

No Twl my friend, don't give up. You know you are right. Keep walking. Walk till the end and then turn back to tell us. Screw you. ;-)

My horse has probably long been dead....

I will wholeheartedly agree that EVERY item in the chain from the alternating current to the speakers is very important in the sonics of any given music system. In some ways, ALL OF THE COMPONENTS ARE EQUAL. They are all equal in the sense if you are missing any one area of component, you get NO sound at all. No power cords, no sound... No source, no sound... No preamplification, no sound (or you get just BLASTING sound.... and I consider CDP's with volume controls as HAVING preamplification built into them).

So in a sense at the MINIMUM extreme, all of these components are equal.

Now when dealing with World Class music systems, I would argue that all of the components are also equal at this MAXIMUM extreme. In these systems you hear every weak link. This may sound like Voodoo, but in World Class Music systems, AC, Power Cords, ICs, Speaker cables make HUGE differences. Same with preamps, amps, and sources. Having a weak link in a world class musical system can detroy the sound compared what it would sound like without the weak link. If you do not think I can get a world class source to dramatically change in sound quality with the change of a power cord, you have not done enough experimentation with power cords in a world class system with a world class digital source. You have to hear the effect to beleive it.

So in a sense, at the MAXIMUM extreme of hi-end components all of the components in a musical system are equal.

What we are dealing with is somewhere between the MINIMUM extreme and MAXIMUM extreme. In this area we are dealing with degrees of GREY exist.

In my last post, I was dealing with the most apparent example that could show that speakers are what one should build a system around. One does not build a system around a source per se... because most sources will at least match most amps and speakers. Most of the trouble with sources is matching them with the right preamp.

In any given system, a source or speakers or whateve can be one of the most critical components for the high sound quality. This is what most of us have... pretty good systems, and we are not starting from scratch. So in our systems it is really a judgement call as to what component is most important or plays the biggest role.

On a side note, I firmly beleive that PREAMPLIFICATION determines much of a systems end sonic signature. Does this mean I think the preamp is most important? NO. But I would argue that most systems have their sound screwed up by their preamplification. Too many folks do not really see the value of having a world class preamp. In a lot of ways the preamp is MORE important than the source. Why? Because the preamp controls what signal ultimately gets to your speakers. Combine a world class source with a crappy preamp and you will get crappy sound. Combine an average source with a world class preamp, and you will get much better sound than combineing a world class source with a crappy preamp.

Anyway, because Sources are not nearly as system dependant as speakers or amps or preamps, I cannot rate them as being the most important part in a system.

However, anyone who says that sources impact a system sonically more than any other component (thus are more important), have not done much experiementation with preamplification. Because with a low quality preamp ANY SOURCE is going to sound bad (no matter what AMP or Speakers you have).

I think I have buried my horse.

KF

Screw it, get a Bose Wave Radio and let the mind take over and enjoy the music. Maybe that's the only way only one component can get us anywhere near where we want to be.

Wow, there are a lot of perspectives here and it seems most are correct given their underlying assumptions. Twl, if the rest of the system is decent, I believe the front end makes a huge difference. If any one part is insanely bad (per your point KF), surely nothing else matters but replacing that part. Great speakers can make a very good system sound better (and, by the way, speakers are a good place to start if you hate buying and selling heavy and bulky things and/or if you are aiming for a specific "sound" that is characterized by a specific speaker). For me, the most important part is the one I want to upgrade next. In other words, so much depends on the system already in place. To paraphrase, if the a**hole works and the brain works and the heart is in trouble, the heart is the most important.

WOW. I just got back from CES in Las Vegas. I had a National Sales Meeting, that is why I got home on Wednesday. The show was over on Sunday. I knew this was a good thread. 91 posts.
Anyway after taking the time to read the replies I think JAX2 is right. Also he actually read my initial post and saw that I asked what was the most important part, and what had the most impact on the system.
Steve