Rate these on order of importance:

Cost is often substituted for quality when making comparisons since the relative value of a product is virtually impossible to determine.

My priority when buying my current system had speakers placed at dead-last in imporatance. Great electronics with okay speakers will sound better than great speakers and okay electronics.

For the 100th time I will state that speakers will never replace what was not retrieved from the source, and then did not survive the trip down the line to the binding posts.

The "synergy of the system" is what most of us are after, anything weak in the chain will deafeat the purpose. I say all in No 1 slot!

5, 5, 5, 4, 1, 2, 3

Changed your mind, Rsbeck?

Yes, I still believe speakers are the most important,
but I put the others in a slightky different order.