Ok this will be a good thread.

Twl,your posts have caused a renewed interest in vinyl for me.
Thanks for taking the time to share from your experience. Since I have only used digital front ends in my current system, I'm curious if anyone has done a similar comparison of highend digital with good speakers and entry level digital with great speakers.

Tom,you make me feel as if I would like to buy something from you...whatcha got for sale?? ;~)

I really like you guys. Just have a good time with your systems.

Eagle, the same thing holds true for digital as it does for analog. The basic system concept is to get the most information you can into the signal chain, and then try to preserve it on the way to the speakers. Even a modest speaker can sound very good when fed a quality, coherent signal. Of course, great speakers will sound even better when fed well. I don't minimize the importance of speakers. I just try to point out the need to feed them well. Once the information enters the system, it can never be improved. It can only be altered, jumbled, or have losses. If you can do the best job of getting the info off the disc and to the speaker, then you can get the best out of those speakers, whether they are modest, or super high end ones. When you get a really good coherent signal to a great speaker, then great things happen to your sound.

Hi David99. I don't have anything to sell, but I always try to have something to offer. I guess we all just do what we can. Glad you liked my post. :^)

Eagle i do like this question about comparing digital
source to speakers. Let me share you my experience on
this because i have 2 system at home, I will respect
every opinion you have.My experience tell me that when
i went to my friend house the first time it was the
wadia 860 source andra speaker, sounds very good but
my cec transport $1700, and my msb $350 combination
it almost equaled the sound, at times the cec will do
things that i like better.I guest the the sound on wadia
is good, but i dont find it involving compare to the cec
and msb combination. Probably my cec and msb are matching
well. I dont know. Thats why Robert Harley is right,
expensive wont automatically perform better. Thenks to
all of you,it give a lot a happiness when i read thread.

While my "source" cost more than my speakers in my own system, the reasons for placing speakers highest on the chain are born out not only by my experiences. It is also supported by accomplished designers of audio componenets, some of whom I have the luck of knowing, who have had the greatest struggles designing really accurate speakers. Of course you can't have crap in the chain and get there. But if you have speakers that are "voiced" with a particular frequency drop out, you can't get there with the source, either.

Of course, one would need to know what music really sounds like. You are more likely to know that by going to your local symphony rather than your local hifi shop.

Charlie