Select Your Less Than Ideal System


Informal survey: Select from one of the four less than ideal systems below. Assume you have limited funds and can only afford three components of excellence and one moderate component. Which will be "sacrificed" to expediency?

I am not interested in alternative answers such as reallocating the funds to achieve balance. This is a thought experiment requiring absolute answers - A., B., C., D.

I have an idea which I am considering writing up as an article and want to see where the community stands on this question. This is not intended to be part of a review and the article is of my own volition, not assigned. Feel free to include your rationale, but I want clear choices regarding the survey. Only one choice please.

Survey: Select your Less Than Ideal Rig:

A.
Moderate source
Excellent amplification
Excellent cabling
Excellent speakers

B.
Excellent source
Moderate amplification
Excellent cabling
Excellent speakers

C.
Excellent source
Excellent amplification
Moderate cabling
Excellent speakers

D.
Excellent source
Excellent amplification
Excellent cabling
Moderate speakers

Thank you for your participation. :)
douglas_schroeder
My strategy is to get the amp/speaker/room combo optimized first, because that constitutes most of the battle and largely determines the general end cost.

I think I've done a good job to date on that.

After that, hell everything (other than ICs) is usually a significant compromise of some sort so chose your poison! If I must chose, I'll go with A, because I know from experience excellent results can be had for very modest cost there, at least for digital sources.
choice is "B". source and speaker is most important.

i have heard power cords make a big difference.
Definitely a "c"...that's what I have right now...with the exception of power cords, I just can't get myself to spend a couple K on speaker cables/interconnects