Rate these on order of importance:

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?

Nrchy, we've been down this path before. While speakers can't improve the signal it recieves (digital correction excluded) they are the most likely culprit to intertwine with a room in such a way to distort it more than any other resonably performing component. And by the same logic no component can improve what was put on the recorded medium (equalization(?) & digital correction excluded) to begin with. There seems to be more consistantcy of performance amongst other like components than speakers. You may disagee with the opinons of others, but, that alone doesn't make them "incorrect".

The point is that if the signal can be transfered to the speakers with a fair degree of accuracy that the speakers will have something of quality with which to work.

Garbage in Garbage out! If the signal is so corrupted when it arrives at the speakers, it doesn't matter how good the speakers are, it will not sound good, or should I say correct?!?

Nrchy, of course I can't disagree. From the postion of the listener, it doesn't matter where the corruption comes from. I just think it's more likely that the most corruption will come from the speaker/room. How many components other than speakers measure worse than 20-20k Hz +/- 3 db? I think it fair to guess, not too many. Yet most speakers, even highly touted very expensive ones can't manage that in anechonic chambers, never mind the wildy unpredictable rooms that most audiophiles have to contend with. Hence the challange to find a speaker whose foibles irritate the least and radiate in such a pattern not be have the room further excasperate the corruupted signal forced into it. Even this argument doesn't make me correct, as I suspect you've already decided. Hey, there are many paths to the same destination.