Where do I start-amp or speakers ?

You'll tie your hands behind your back if you buy the amp first.

Well, if you get a big Sound Lab, there really aren't a lot of amps that drive that speaker all that well. But it is at the same time one of the most transparent and full range speakers made. If you happen to hear a set that is correctly set up and buy them as a result, to best serve that purchase you have to deal with the limited number of amps that play it right.

Its 30 ohms in the bass; for a solid state amp to keep up with a 200 watt tube amp you need about 800 watts. And it will be too bright...

So in this case, is the speaker the first thing to get or not? It might be if transparency and realism is at the top of your list, and you don't care what it takes to get there!

So its probable that the correct answer isn't something boiled down to black and white!

It does not matter what you start with as long as the two are well matched in the end.

However, practically I would start first with speakers that will integrate into the room properly since one often has little control over room acoustics compared to all the rest.

Some will levitate to tube or SS amp first and go from there. Its all good. Just do it right for the right reasons! Or just have at it, don’t sweat the tech details and have fun along the way.

@michaeljbrown 

I am of the speaker-first persuasion. But really for me, the most important thing is speaker/amp interaction. I'm going through it right now with the TAD E-1s. They sound utterly amazing with some amplification but just OK with others. My problem is that the utterly amazing combo is waaay outside my budget, and that's just for the amp. So be aware that the pairing of speaker and amp/pre or integrated will make or break how the system sounds.

That is a lot of good information, guys.Thanks much. I haven’t settled on an amp yet, just considering the good deal on the Cary 202.2 presented me by a trusted dealer friend. I’ve never owned any speaker but a Thiel; so, it’ll be fun to try something new. I have run into a couple of real audio characters in this hobby, one of whom has owned over 150 pair of speakers. I have decided I would like to bring a few pair in and out of my system and to do so it looks like I’ll need a pretty versatile amp. I’ve had a couple of krells, a 300fpb & some 250 monos, as well as a Quicksilver tube. It was only 15 wpc, I think, but it did fine paired with some big Altecs. I think this will be fun! I’ll start with the Cary or maybe the Schitt monos, I forget what weird name they are: Vardin or Vostok or something like that. Or maybe a tube amp...