Speakers The single most critical component

Your post sounds like machine code for a tweeter and a midrange driver.

Of course, speakers are important.

Nope .... I disagree. Intuitively, speakers matter , BUT, and its a BIG “BUT” ..... the speakers are no more important than the rest of your system components.

In brief: Let’s talk about your upstream electronics. There is a well-travelled and time-honoured homily in this crazy hobby:
” ... Garbage in = garbage out!...” (full stop).

I've heard many different speaker types, and many different systems employing ful-lrange drivers, many of which I really liked, but, I would hardly say that such drivers beat out all others.  I've heard many single driver fullrange systems, as well as full-range drivers used as a wide-range driver in multi-way systems.  The full-range drivers ranged from cheap, but quite good Tangband drivers to field-coil drivers that cost about $30k for a pair.  The best commercial single driver system I've heard is the Charney Companion with the AER driver, followed by a Voxativ system and then the Cube Nenuphar.  I have heard, and liked systems with full-range drivers plus woofers and full-range driver plus tweeter, and full-range driver used as a wide-range midrange in three way systems.  My favorite multi-way system with a full-range driver is an open baffle system employing a Jensen M-10 full-range driver and a Jensen RP 302 tweeter (custom-made system).  An example of a good commercial full-range driver plus tweeter speaker is the Soundkaos Wave 42.  Similar to the full-range plus tweeter system are two way single-driver coaxial systems such as those built by Tannoy and Trenner and Friedl.  

Of course there are many other kinds of drivers in many other kinds of systems that can deliver great sound, including many others that avoid complex crossovers, such as full-range electrostatic speakers.  I don't think any particular kind of speaker corners the market on great sound.

While it might well be the case that speakers matter the most when it comes to determining the basic character of a system, it is hardly the case that "all well made tube amps sound very close."  There is an incredibly wide range of differing sound characteristics among well regarded amps.  I heard a comparison of two very fine amps where a relatively modest pair of speakers was employed to show how differences between amps matter.  

People hear a system, hear that the sound is coming out of the speaker, it must be the speaker.  

When in reality: Imagine the perfect speaker. The perfect speaker, every bit of the signal that goes in comes out perfectly. The perfect speaker neither adds any sound of its own, nor does it take anything away from what is in the signal it is fed. Therefore, when listening to the perfect speaker you are not hearing the speaker at all. All the speaker really is doing is letting you hear the signal with perfect clarity and fidelity.  

Therefore, in this case, with the perfect speaker the speaker itself no longer matters. It is the components feeding it the signal that matters. Since you cannot hear the speaker then logically the only thing left to hear is the signal, which is running through all these other components.

Do you get it? All these other components are the amp, source, wires. The better the speaker the more these matter. So when you say the speaker is the most important, what you forget to leave out is it is only the most important when it is the worst component. 

The better the speaker the less it matters and the more everything else matters.

Voxativ
~~~~~~~~~~~
this is the FR speaker company that is <<on the move>> making their line 21st Century speakers a  reality, 
However  there is only 1 model which i can basrely afford, their AC1A at $1800.
Considering  prices on box speakers this is very competitive. Of course you need to build a cabinet + add a  compression tweet. So now  this makes Voxativ mid priced and has to be judged among mid-priced boxed style speakers. 
What still remains is the <<efficiency factor>> which to me is the only criteria when considering buyinga  speaker, 
Thus to get your foot in the door to a  real high fidelity speaker, expect to fork out the cash.
Otherwise you can buy used box stuff all over audiogon on the cheap, But then its the old saying
<<You get what you pay for>> and nothing more. You will not ever find used FR's on the used market,. Folks never sell what they know is a keep, while if you look here and on ebay, its likea   grave yard > of box style speakers. Take you pick, make any offer, he'll take it.
This is what i am trying to convey here, 
FR have been aro9und, but this comapny has gone further, amking this FR <<the real deal> while box style are  out dtaed. 
this is the point of my OP.
Folks can rave about this box and that box speaker, but once they have listened to a  FR in their rooms, they really know  nothing about the failure of box/xover designs. They are old old school and its just a  matter of time before FR takes the market on new sales.
If I did not mention Voxativ, no one else would. 
I read all these <<what kind of speaker should i get>>> and the list  just goes on and on, Not even 1 mention of FR.
Audiogoners are old school, still stuck in the boxy xover designs. 
I now really hate, despise, puke at hearing any box/xover design. 
This is the point of my OP, to bring awareness. 
Of course Voxativ's line is pricey, their top model goes for 
~~~$60K~~~~~
More than a Mercedes Benz. 

Tell ya what
Lets take the Xoxativ newest intro model 
@ $2 k+ $1k for a  compression horn tweet (take your pick they range in prices all over the place)
so now give me a  box design under 91db (99% of box designs are 91db/lower) 
that will match what a  FR/TIHorn can do
Sure the FR isa 8 inch woofer, not going to match a  10/12 inch box's bass response.
But for overall equation
bass/mids/highs. 
Name me 1 box dsign that can match the FR/TI Horn's perforamnce.
As a  bonus, I'll give you say ohh another $5k on top of the $3k, help ya out there in this 
final show down shootout, which i began back in 2000 here on audigon, one of the longest running threads in audiogons history. 
Went by the tag, <<Bartokfan>> some of you  who have been around, may remember me, I knew absoluetly nothing back then. It was only when i got the 6.5 FR in
~~I acheived enlightenment~~~
So take $8k, give the FR8/TI Horn your best shooter in the west
OK Coral, 
all my chips on the FR/TI Horn. 
Taking some 20 years to get to the last speaker standing shootout,
Sundown, you be there...
;-))

$8k in the used market, 
Thats $16k in the new market, box/xover low efficient design vs the 8FR/TI Horn speaker.
After 40 years, i finally have awakened. 
Did it all my own, even Richard Gray  could not give me the answer to my search.
All he said FR has good things and bad things. 
I;ll take the bad with the good, because the good is The Best.  whereas box style only offers,,,~~Mediocre~~~

facts are
SEAS makes the finest most musical low efficient speakers in the  world, Bests Scan Speaks which are too warm vs SEAS clarity,  life like voicing in mids, 
'But even SEAS next to any old FR, can't hold a  candle, 
FR, fastest shooter in the west
Shot out the SEAS at the OK Coral, was really bloody, you really did not want to see that gun fight in my  listening room
RIP SEAS, you served me well past 20. 
But ain't gonna miss ya, thats for sure. 

Don't take my word for it, Just watch and believe. 
as we say down here in New Orleans Saints land, ~~ya gotta believe~~~ 
Even the Voxativ owner knows he has the worlds very finest drivers, 
Field coil is way out my undwerstanding, not to mention out my budget
i'll stick with his entry model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq9r_TL49Kk

Give me any relatively good speakers and relatively good source and amplifier, like mine which cost me 500 bucks, i will make them sound very good.... Why and how?

Nobody listen to "signals", we listen to the speakers/room interaction with our " 2 ears, and the timing difference between the 2 frontwaves coming from each speaker will made the perceptive experience heaven or hell or all in between...

Audio is about 3 things: decreasing the electrical noise floor, controlling the vibrations/resonance problem but MAINLY passive room treatment AND more importantly active room controls....

If you want to know if your room is good, listen to The Three penny opera 1958 by Kurt Weill with Lotte Lenya and if you could listen the orchestra playing in front of you, seating in front of your speakers, but the singers voices coming from your back wall where there is no speakers, your room is under acoustic controls....If not, buying a cable AT ANY PRICE will not give you this nor buying most tweaks or a costly dac or amplifier.... Acoustic is key....

I will not speak about voice timbre or instrumental timbre which sound unnatural even in many very costly systems or very tweaked one i listen to...

Then in audio forget price, think acoustic....

And audio is not about "taste" but about acoustic....

I appreciate your enthusiasm. Enjoy the speakers, I think you are going to put something together with the drivers.

When I was in college the “greatest” speakers were the “Voice of the Theater”... JBL? Maybe some other company. It was a long time ago. 15” or 16”. I spent the summer constructing massive acoustically perfect enclosures. Unfortunately, once I finished the enclosures I didn’t have the money to buy the speakers. I bet they would have sounded great.

My experience since then is that all components matter and there is a nearly infinite ways to put together a good system. Enjoy yours when you get them.

this thread seems particularly hard to read for me... i lose patience and interest reading it...

i will just react to the title and say that in a really good system, you don’t hear the speakers, you hear the image of the music, the performance, the wall of sound, the soundstage and the performers within it

the speakers reconstruct/re-create/reflect back a credible facsimile of the artists’ performance that is captured via the microphones and the mix/mastering

apologies in advance if this point has already been made

enjoy everyone, have a good evening

The same to you fella.

One thing is for sure the igital,  or turntable is the most critical part of any Audio system ,for everything starts there ,once the quality 
is changed or compromised it cannot be fixed down stream.

the speaker is the by far the highest distortion part of the system 
by 10 fold vs electronics up to 3-5%+. Distortion That is why it is essential to put at least 1/3 rd minimum of the total cost of the Audio system . get the best possible speaker you can afford.

One thing is for sure the digital,  or turntable is the most critical part of any Audio system

I am not sure of that at all...

Take the best digital of the world or the best turntable and put them in a bad room....I just listen to that in youtube.....My 500 bucks system is better...

Even without the best digital or turntable, only with an average not too bad and relatively good gear like mine BUT in a controlled acoustic, i prefer my system to many 100 times costlier...

Then....

I will repeat muself think acoustic.....

Anyway who can afford the best turntable or the best dac?

Anyone can afford  a very good  room at peanut cost .... It is my experience....

It all comes into view, speakers are the main sound production, but preamp, source, and cables do all assimilate to the final sound. 
   Components, cables, source, tube or ss preamp, amps, it all should have synergy to be good. 
    That is why this hobby is a basta*d, so many variables, components, tweaks, cables, tubes, ss, source, quality of the recording,...


So much comes into play.

In the last few weeks I have added Mr White, a spectacular new power cord, Townshend F1 speaker cables, and just the other night Townshend F1 interconnects. If anyone thinks the speaker is so massively important, come hear what happens when any one of these wires is changed. It will rock your world, and put an end to all this "speaker is the main thing" talk. 

What is the most important component? Every single one of them.

It is not true that with the perfect speaker, the signal that comes in "comes out perfectly."   Of course not, because what comes in (electronic signal) has no material relation to "what comes out" (sound waves).  It produces sound-waves from a signal, thus completely changing the nature of that signal.

What is the most important component? Every single one of them.

An integral audio system is like a piano, all parts of the piano are important....You are right about that.... But put the piano in a good room or in a bad room it will sound very different...

It is better to have an average audio system in a good room than a better audio system in a bad room... And the difference if the acoustic controls are optimal is so huge than the best system in the world will not be enough to beat a less good one in this optimal room...

Then focusing on cables or sources for sure is right....But secondary....Especially when advising people about good choices...

BECAUSE in audio experience for almost all people with an "average audio system" nothing compared in S.Q./price ratio with the acoustical settings controls of the room...

If someone own a dedicated room it may cost peanuts.... My mechanical equalizer cost me nothing for example...My passive treatment cost me nothing also....Is it the best? no... Is it extraordinary? yes...

Some pychoacoustical factor are related not to the gear or the tweaks or the cables or to the speaker choices mostly, but to the relation between the speakers the room the passive materials treatment and the active controls mainly....

Why?

Because for example listener envelopment or LEV is related to the timing thresholds of the wavefronts coming from each one speaker, and crossing the different pressure zones and reflecting on the walls toward EACH ears with DIFFERENT timing cues....No piece of gear by itself can give this experience of the listener envelopment or LEV in a non controlled room....Some piece of electronic gear some very costly "tweak" using RF can( like the schumann generators at low cost help a lot or the more sophisticated atmasphere of SR which is more powerful) but they will NOT give you a natural timbre experience like an acoustical treatment and active control will do and must do....Then.....

Psychoacoustic is the gate to the optimal audio experience.... Upgrading the gear is not the way, save for rich people with no time to do the brain work....

Let me share my most recent experiences
Everyone can decide for himself
This is only my opinion, my 2 cents.
My Defy7 was being upgarded by Ricahrd Gray, so as is his usual, he loans out his spare amps.
1st up,  his <<baby Gray>>a  heavily modded Dynaco ST70 redesigned by Richard, he sells alot of these amps.
Really did not expect much from the lil Gray,, but honestly close to the Defy.
Next he loaned me his Allan Organ mono blocks with KT120's, again, sound close to the Dynaco and Allan.s all 3 amps had close to same sonics, /sound stage etc.
kt88=EL34 = KT120, to me a tube is a tube. just shades of difference twix the 3 tubes.
Which is how i base my opinion a  push pull = a  push pull. 
 SET's are another amp.
I could live with any of the 3 amps, but prefer the Defy for its aesthetics and does have slightly superior sonics, = read <<nuances> Nothing more.
My Jadis DPL preamp, sounds very close to my sold chinese clone Jadis 12AT7 preamp, hardly tell them apart. 
The cayin cd player sounds very close but no cigar to the Shanling, the Shanling onlya  nuance over the pricey Jadis DAC. 
Conclusion, 
Most quality design  push pull tube amps will exhibit very close ambience to each other. 
Caveat here, looking at a  baby Gray, looks ugly inside and very simple layout vs Defy 7's very complex layout. Yet both sound similiar. 
Jadis DAC has some very nice components inside vs the  Made In China looking Shanling, Yet both sound very close in sonics. 
Now we come to speakers.
There is not 1 box type xover design, traditional 2 or 3 way that competes with a  FR/TIHorn
Here its a matter of a  completely different experience.
This is what i am attempting to get across  in this topic, Agree, disagree, fine. I just wanted to document my experience as a  google login reference for future audiophiles research. 
They can do what they wish with my experience. 
Caveats here. 
Gold Lion KT88's soundeda  bit too warm for my taste, went with Svetlana, next wioll be EH kt88's.
Might be a dif, not sure.
Richard says they are the same tube, made in same plant, Can't say for sure if he is right.
Next up caps, When the other tech geek removed the big blue Philips caps and installed Nichicon's, some of the Jadis magic went away also, WE put them back.
When we installed 12 .47 Mundorf SESGO caps, i noted more bass,
Again navships wiring throughout system all adds up to nice nuances. 
Bottom line is the biggest most significant gain in my system was going to a  FR vs the old traditional xover low efficiency design. 
IMHO tubes + FR are a match made in heaven. 
Richard was telling me often, <<YOu have the wrong speakers>> But not understanding what he was getting at, He may not have even mentioned FR. The FR discovery was all on my own research. 
I would look over DL offerings on ebay for hours, But not sure what exactly FR was  all about. 
Took the step and glad i did. 
This is why i arrived at the hypothesis <,speakers are everything in a  audio system>> 
All else are just nuances, tweaks. 
I you have the wrong speakers, ya ain't got nothing. 
Hope that clarifies. 

Intriguing to see a post coded with a blend JSON JavaScript Python and HTML. ML robothreads could be the future of Audiogon. 

Congratulations to everyone who had the willingness and patience to decipher the long run on sentences full of abbreviations and symbols!

I guess Im not everyone.  I read the Title, any consolation prize?

I’m gonna go with, you really CAN’T leave out any parts.

The room 50%. The rest, EVERYTHING, Gear, cable, tweaks, grid, including speakers the other 50%.

I’m pretty good at ciphers. I use to have to debug drivers/operators reports as they filled them out on the fender of a rattling simi or enviro cab in the rain, THEN drop it, in the MUD and give it the wipe off on an oily, greasy, slicker and stuff the WAD in the CRY box....

This OPs writing style just causes convulsions in certain lights.. AND and occasional spastic colon. I can hang..

Well maybe not.. Where is the Preparation H, I feel an episode coming on.. :-)

Thank you very much..

Regards

....now, That was scary.....

I open the link, and Miller is on about 'the Perfect Speaker', a somewhat more coherent version of 'Mr. k"....

*whew*  Glad that potential universe swerve collapsed as I made way 'down here'...

...anyway...

Getting over the concept of 'Perfect' is somewhat hard, but do-able.  Just go for what boats your float...and enjoy.

Weekend, yay. J

Well, perhaps they were junk, and they were certainly not magico gold carbon fiber quality, but the omega single driver alnico FR speakers I had were nice, but had many weaknesses. Is Voxativ making something entirely different? If so, please educate me. Thanks. 

quality, but the omega single driver alnico FR speakers I had were nice, but had many weaknesses. Is Voxativ making something entirely different? If so, please educate me. Thanks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not able to give real live/bonifide critique on the Voxativ
as i have not heard them, only via YT uploads. Of course you can just look at the web site and see these are highly engineered products. 
Richard also mentioned weaknesses in his experience of FR,, but as with you he said there were many lovely things as well.
AS we know there is no perfect speaker, and i have no super high celestial hopes of finding perfection.
I awoke at 3am with this thought on my mind.
THE MORE EFFICIENT THE SPEAKER THE MORE EFFICIENT THE TUBE AMPLIFICATION
There , I have finally figured out how to get the best super high fidelity out your tube amplification.
I seriously doubt anyone has formulated this thesis in any stereo review/speaker review.
I am the 1st, although may have been hinted at somewhere in Stereophile's years of issues.
Of course this applies to SET amplification, which led me away from SET's. Due to my Thors 87db, I was a  a  harsh critic of SET's due to their limitation of speaker choise, Stupid me, al;l i had to do was draw a  further conclusion. 
If SETs love high efficiecy, its logical to note push pull also may benifit from  employing high efficient speakers,
And this is the truth. Push pull tube amps perform much better with high efficient speakers. 
This is the main thrust to my argument, that any speaker  lower than 92/93db is not a  match for tube amplification. 
FR is the only way to voice muisc via tube amplification, Now which lab is on the cutting edge of technology of FR drivers?
Lucky for us, the lab developed a  single driver we all can afford. Now our tube amplification can 
as one DIYer has his mantra
~~Sing Like Angels~~~

https://omegaloudspeakers.com/collections/monitor-speakers/products/super-alnico-high-output-monitor...


Yes pretty good description of a  very friendly tube amp speaker
Note in the descript ~~No power sucking, midrange MUDDYING xovers~~~
Agree. 
xover speakers are dinasaurs when it comes to voice tube amplification magic. 
Thats my point.
Now as far as Omega vs Voxativ.
I'd rather  have the option of purchasing my own driver and buildinga  cabinet, AS per the suggestion from Voxativ 
Quote
** our customers like the idea they can purcahse our driver, go to Home Depot and buy a piece of sanded plywood and build their own cabinet/face panel**
WE are all ona  tight budget lately, so buying a  single FR driver making the cabinet is a  great way to get the foot in the door to high percision high fidelity voicing of music.
I'd say the 21st Century is here and now. 
I  have been enlightened, comming out the dark ages. 
No one back in 2000 fully explained these things to me, had they, I might not(?) have bought the Thors. 
There are alot of newbies who do not havea  clue, such as i was once, as where to go for speaker selection for their tube amplification. 
WEll now these greenies do not have to go down the wasteful road of speaker flipping to realize its FR which is the answer to their issues.
FR is the King of all speakers. 

Troels Gravesen can read my posts,  just sit there and shake his head all he wants,
Hard to argue against  the truth. 

@Millercarbon --

When in reality: Imagine the perfect speaker

Sounds like an oxymoron to me, certainly the premise it forms:

... with the perfect speaker the speaker itself no longer matters. It is the components feeding it the signal that matters. Since you cannot hear the speaker then logically the only thing left to hear is the signal, which is running through all these other components.

Do you get it? All these other components are the amp, source, wires. The better the speaker the more these matter. So when you say the speaker is the most important, what you forget to leave out is it is only the most important when it is the worst component.

The better the speaker the less it matters and the more everything else matters.

What’s to get here, pragmatically speaking, is that the speakers (and acoustics) have always mattered the most to even approach "perfection," and trying to convince oneself we’ve actually accomplished that seems, if anything, unrealistic. Everything may matter to some degree, but certainly not all equally.

The most important component of speakers? Your taste and preference.

When I read the OP’s user name, I was expecting a different writing style.  In any event, speakers are just as important as the the rest of the components. 

I agree to a large degree with the comments about the room. In my experience I had a $20,000 speaker in a properly sized well treater room I moved the system to another location in the same space but lost the point of boundary reinforcement for the right speaker. All the dac, cable, and other tweaks I made became much less relevant to my ears in the new location. I can still get great sound and enjoy the system but it took going through this exercise to understand the importance or room reinforcement.  

Yes those drivers you mention are really fantastic.  Had this discussion with a local dealer recently regarding how he decides on a particular product line.  On of his comments were who makes the drivers.  In theory anyone can make any type of speaker cabinet and use drivers.  He likes the manufacturers who make their own drivers.  All things make a difference.  For example I would not use a Class D amp with a horn speaker.  If you like these speakers then set-up up to field coil designs.  

Someone is high on the New Experience drug.  :)

Revel F228Be 90 db efficiency, easy to drive. Stereophile speaker of the year. 10k new but can be found for 7k used. 

What’s to get here, pragmatically speaking, is that the speakers (and acoustics) have always mattered the most to even approach "perfection," and trying to convince oneself we’ve actually accomplished that seems, if anything, unrealistic. Everything may matter to some degree, but certainly not all equally.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Best post on this topic, I was not going to touch Millercarbon's comment, as i could not come up with the excellent response  you provide.
The Jadis DPL is a  nuance superior to the 12AT7 I sold off.
The Jadis DAC is a  nuance+... superior to the Shanling 3000.
The Defy7 is  a  nuance superior to RG's baby Gray/Allan Organ  monos.
But now we come to speakers,
There are indeed weaknesses in the 6.5 single FR, addinga  tweet corrects this. 
I am running a  Dayton FR 3.5 on top the 6.5 FR, which does compensate for some ambient highs. 
The Vifa  clone arrives next week, Then we can hear a  FR + designated 91db tweet with the FR.
The Seas Thor was  like listening to a wet blanket thrown over the speaker. 
All of Granesen's designs are 92db/lower , None of his offerings will work for my tube amplification. 
The purpose of this topic was answered last night 3am  as i awoke with the realization that...
The lower the efficiency of the speaker, the less effective the tube amplification. 
Now i know above I was more than forgiving allowing speakers with a  92/91 db rating to be employed with tube amplification. I have to revoke and condemn that generosity. 
In my  book, the new  numbers are 93/94db efficiency., 
Why did I change?
Because every quality FR efficiency #'s begin at 94db. 
So if a  speaker is not 94db/higher, the speaker  will not make the ideal match for tube amplification. 
Speakers for tube amplification begins at 94db. 
This would be the FR class of speakers. 
AT 93db, you are now on the threshold of compromising a  tube amplification from its highest range of performance. 
I rest my case. 
I so wish I had understood these things wayy back 2000 when i started my speaker quest in the topic, Speaker shootout at the OK Coral...

Revel F228Be 90 db efficiency, easy to drive
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps Easy for solid state amplification, that low 90db will compromise a tube amplification from its effective/clean performance. 
WE are looking at 94db as the cutoff point. 

The few  snides above 
 i choose to ignore as these members are not in any shape/form contributing to this most important issue of performance in tube amplification.
Who here will argue against  my belief above ,  that the  IDEAL cutoff point efficiency in a speaker for tube amplification is 94db. Surely for SET, but this includes Push PUll. 
Even Jadis's massive monos the JA800 will sound far superior with 94db, than it would with a  90/89 db speaker. 
Which is the point of this discussion, how do we get the most/best performance from our tube amplification?

It all matters, synergy. 

Long waste of time and space. Have your dealer set up a pair of Magneplaner’s correctly IN YOUR ROOM, forget all this stuff, and LISTEN.

I don’t care what measurements you do, boxes distort and Maggies give you what you feed them.

If you don’t like what you hear, change what you are feeding them.

Enjoy!

SEAS Exotic F8 not on the radar then? 

I've been looking at  the Seas Exotic at $800 each. 
That driver has been around quite some time, 
Whereas the engineer at Voxativ had worked for Lowter, took Lowther to a whole new level. 
I  am quite sure the Seas Exotic is a  fine speaker, but my budget only allows 1 choice. Will be Voxativ in 2022.
Besides you can not find even 1 YT video on the Seas Exotic, nor have i read even 1 **WOW** review on the Seas FR model. Whereas on the Voxativ, at least 1, maybe a  2nd comment left on Voxativ's  speakers perforamnce at 2 different audio shows, one in Montreal claimed the Voxativ was the very best room at the show.
Seas puts all their engineering  in the old dianasaur models, whereas Voxativ is working on bringing the audio community the very finest in 21st Century High Fidelity, This is why I chose to  ignore Seas. 

Room+Speakers get my vote. The whole system is an ecology so the "everything is important" argument is powerful. But, the question of "which is the most important component" provides the frame in which the question must be answered -- and the "everything is important" answer, to that frame, is tendentious and argumentative. So is (yet more) verbiage about "embeddings," which at this point is approaching a religion.

If the room is not a component, the the OP is right -- it’s the speakers.

Just typed in Voxativ audiogon's search engine
seems there already exists atopic on Voxativ, 
There you can read the commenst, which backs up   conclusions i;'ve arrived at independently, although no actual live experience,  all my hunches are confirmed in the comments comming from those who own /auditioned the Voxativ.
It is the battle of the Dinasuars vs Full range/TI Horns in the early 21st Century, My guess the war will be over come 2030-2040. 
There will not be any production of 93less db/under, traditional box/xover designs. 
All maket speakers will be Full range/Compression Tweets. 100% come 2040
You can get glimpes of this zeitgeist now, witness box/xover designs sitting on audiogon/ebay month after month. No one wants them even at half price. 
I'm lucky if I get cents on the $ for my Thors listed. 
Whereas try to find a  high fidelity used FR. Don't exist, folks do not sell  when they know its the speaker they;'ve been searching for all their life long

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anybody-listen-voxativ?highlight=voxativ

So is (yet more) verbiage about "embeddings," which at this point is approaching a religion.

You say the samething than me about the room/speakers, which is ok and then you insult me with a completely stupid affirmation: the working " embeddings" controls of the 3 dimensions linked to any sudio system would be a RELIGION ?

Why being wrong with a false comparison and why not insulting me directly?

Distinguishing some factors: electrical one, mechanical one and acoustical one with a concept or a word is not creating a religion....Especially when here this distinction has never been made clearly....My embeddings controls are not "tweaks" only...Then i needed a word linked to a clear concept...

Being annoyed with someone dont EXCUSE abuse of rethoric or comparisons...

Be a man and say it directly like in one of your past post you said i wrote too much.... This is fair....

But i dont like at all "dislike" of someone hidden under absurd affirmation about him....Like you jusat did...

I speak directly here to people, not indirectly to anyone about some people.... Do you understand what i means?

Try my method, read or not a post and forget it if you dont like it; if you spot something wrong or something with which you are not ok say it simply and directly to the person without being irrational....

An embedding controls cannot be a religion, especially if it is free of money and only a concept easy to grasp....

I hate nobody here at all, i speak to all, I SAY directly what i think with the more possible rationality....I try.... I am not perfect for sure...

Audio has changed so much over the last 55 years that I have been an audiophile. Much has improved in all types of gear, speakers, amps etc, but back then most households had a crappy console stereo. You were an audiophile if you owned some Dynaco tube gear and you were on the top of the heap if you had MacIntosh or Marantz tube gear. Over the top "lifestyle statement" gear didn’t exist. Gear was there to serve the music and generally the more you paid the better it was.

I digress. Back then it was the speaker that mattered the most. Many of them were easy to implements and easy to drive and the general rule of the day was to buy a decent source (meaning) turntable, integrated amp/receiver and then spend the most you could afford on your speakers. Spending the proportionately largest amount of $$ on speakers within your budget generally yielded the best sonic bank for your buck. There were no $10,000 MC cartridges, and $15,000 speaker cables to distract you. If have the big bucks to spend then sure, get the best of everything but if you are working on a budget then you need to be thoughtful. 

I still think this holds true to some extent. As long as your source and amplification are of good quality, you will have a better initial outcome allocating the most you can to your speakers. Speakers are difficult. They require woodworking, crossovers, nuts and bolts and magnets and transducers and..... They cost a lot ship. Geez. What a nightmare compared to a bunch of stuff on a circuit board in a box.With so much complexity, it is likely that there is a more linear correlation between cost and performance in speakers than most other components. At least that's what I found. You need to go much further up the food chain to reach the point of diminishing returns, so to speak.

Of course all parts of your system matter but to prove my point, any day I’d probably enjoy a  system with $5000 speakers driven by a decent $1000 integrated  amp and $1000 CD/streamer than $2000 speakers driven by a $2500 amp and $2500 cd/streamer/vinyl source. That’s my point.

Small Room    Vivid Audio KAYA S12 Mini Monitors 
 
                                              Big Room    Vivid Audio KAYA 90

leaving aside all these 146-sentence run-on posts... isn’t it obvious?

the speakers are the actual electro mechanical transducers that actually deliver the music to the ears of the listener in the room...

if that ain’t right, all efforts up the chain are not going to yield the desired results

nuff said

the speakers are the actual electro mechanical transducers that actually deliver the music to the ears of the listener in the room...

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perfectly stated.
 You stated in 20 words what took me 2000+ words
Then conisder everything i wrote on this topic as mere footnotes to your chapter. 

probably enjoy a  system with $5000 speakers driven by a decent $1000 integrated  amp


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
this alligns with my recent  experience  with Richard Gray's modded Dynaco ST50 + his Allan Organ Mono blocks, vs the $8k Jadis Defy. 
Really surprised me these 2 amps were close to the Defy7 modded with Mundorf SESGO/F&T caps. 

~~~~
We should also consider this,. Look at audiogon/ebay/audiomart listings foe used speakers,,most just sit there month after month UNSOLD.
There are zero FR used up for sale
That alone should say something.
 Single  FR/high quality  if listed at 50% off would sell in 1 day.
While xover box designs sit 50% off for months. 
Just a thought.......
If not forensic proof.