Rate these on order of importance:

Eldartford, you don't agree that Jmcgrogan2 and Subaruguru agree? Ha! I suppose your right, I'm wrong by default. Other forums beg to agree to disagree. Here on Audiogon, we disagree to agree. All in all very disagreeable. Ha!

But I'm a Red Sox fan!

Any of these, plus amplification/preamplification can screw up the sound. If the system sounds bad, the only thing that is important is how you can fix it. Whatever is making YOUR system sound like crap is number 1 in importance and in every system sounding like crap (or to be more P.C., unsatisfactory) that is something different. So, I am not a fan of ranking the importance of equipment in a sound system or cost allocation in a system. The right amount to spend on a piece of equipment is exactly enough to achieve your sonic goals for the system and not a cent more! There are many paths to a great-sounding system and many paths are not super-expensive. Equipment matching and speaker placement are everything. The toughest trick, I think, is going to a stereo store, listening to a particular component in the store's demo system, isolating and assessing that particular component's sonic quality and its sonic qualities from the rest of the demo system and then determining whether and how those qualities will complement your existing system at home while not making a mistake in judgement!

Is it safe to assume that many people (incorrectly) choose speakers as the most important because they are the most flawed piece of gear in the system?

Why would people choose as most important a piece that has least to do with the reproduction of the original signal?

Do speakers retreive the signal from the source? Do the transmit it to the pre-amp? Do they process the signal and output it to the amp? Do they amplify it so it is loud enough to be heard? Do they transmit the signal from the amp to the binding posts?

So they have no effect on the signal until it arrives at the cabinet. How can they be more important than anything ahead of them?

c'mON Nrchy, nothing has any effect on the signal until it arrives at it! An amp has no effect until the signal arrives at it. How can that make the amps more important than any other part? What type of logic is that?