How important is tuning?

To a winemaker tunning is VERY important. Beermakers too, I guess.

in my experience, tunning is of no importance whatsoever,

-cfb

You need to include cables, equipment support, power and your listening room in your definition of "all the expensive things out there". A great amp starved for juice in a room with standing waves coupled to a vibrating floor simply stops being a great amp. The same goes for your other equipment categories.

In my book, "tuning" only starts once all the basics are in place, whereby "tuning" means going over all the small details again rather than tuning in the sense of tuning a piano.

Fine-tuning a room and system can be very interesting (and educational) and can often be had for reasonable amounts of money or no money at all. Experimenting with speaker placement, for example, typically only costs time.

That damn Iowa native just can't leave well enough alone :)

Tunning makes all the difference to a good Chardonnay.

will