Whats more important? Speaker or the Amp

Precisely my point Ralph. Try running those Magnepan MMG with a Yamamoto Soundcraft A-08. A 2W amp with an 88dB/5 ohm impedance speaker.

Total disaster.

Some folks don't get it.

This first: Know yourself.

If you know what you really want (from life or from your sound system), you will be better equipped to make intelligent choices about the best way to accomplish it. And unless you are infallible, this whole process will still be a trial-and-error journey; in addition, what you want may well change as you change.

Thus far in your audio journey, haven't you learned a great deal about what you do and do not want from your sound system?

Getting to the question at hand, I don't think you should choose the amplifier with great care and then throw just any speaker on it. Nor do I think you should do the reverse, unless you're Dave Wilson giving a demo! And even then, I suspect he took the time to find a cheap amplifier that still sounded pretty darn good on his speakers.

In my opinion the question to ask oneself is, "What am I really trying to do with this sound system?" Once that question has been answered, the next one is pretty obvious: "What's the best way to accomplish what I want?"

Here's my generic answer to the first question: "I'm trying to recreate as closely as possible the aural perception of a live performance on music that I listen to a lot within my budget and without creating a sore spot in my marriage."

Now to the best of my knowledge there is no well-established consensus on exactly what the minimum requirements are to recreate the perception of a live performance - so there's still lots of room for individual interpretation as to the best way of accomplishing that part. In some cases the speaker/amplifier matchup is not critical (as Dave Wilson has demonstrated), and in some cases it is very critical (see Atma-Sphere's post above).

I think that in most cases the speaker's characteristics have the most influence on the final sound of the system. Sometimes this will significantly narrow down the amplifier choices, and sometimes not.

[As a side note, an amplifier's input has variations in the domains of time and magnitude (voltage), as does its output. A speaker's input varies in time and magnitude, but its output varies in those two domains plus three dimensional space. So I claim that at least in theory speakers have more opportunity to screw things up - which they often take full advantage of!]

Now some people place a very high priority on the beneficial characteristics of particular amplifier types - SET and OTL come to mind. For these people, amplifier type (if not specific amplifier choice) will come first. Once that choice is made, the range of speakers to choose from will naturally narrow down considerably.

Personally, there are certain types of amplification I would like to use, and certain types of speakers I would like to use, because in my experience these do a good job of taking me down the road towards what I want.

Duke

It's a system. From source to speakers to ears.

Neither is important if you have high $$$ cables between them ;-)

Above $500/pair, i don't think there are any really "bad sounding" speakers. and, according to ancient wisdom, all amplifiers sound the same...
when i upgraded my system to B&W 801's, i had a denon 200w/ch amplifier. it was well made, and looked really cool. but the B&W's sounded somewhat "artifical". i was able to trade up to a hafler xl-600, which sounded much more convincing (realistic). about 2 years later i borrowed a used levinson 23 amp to experiment with. in 2 minutes or less i was so impressed- instrumental textures were so nicely reproduced, that i decided i HAD TO HAVE it!! so i acquired a ml-23.5 which i enjoyed the heck out of for several years. the search for improvement still was not over- my next amp was a krell FPB-300, which threw a 3D stage, something i didn't know i was lacking...! the krell was more open and transparent as well,
although the levinson's bass was still comparable.
a few more years passed, and a friend let me audition his pass aleph 1.2's against the krell. the improvement was not all that big, but the "warmth" and presence of musicians with the pass amps was addictive none-the-less. which brought me to try out rowland m-12's, which mimicked the sound of the alephs without the weight and heat. still not 100% happy, i lucked into a pair of levinson 33h's at a price i could afford. they were so much more dynamic than anything i'd heard before, with an uncanny-low noise floor.
so these are still in use to this day. but on some days i feel they're a little too neutral and long for the pass alephs again... maybe i should get a pair of XA-160's...!!!
i feel the speakers and the amps that drive them are totally inseparable. rather than the car/tire analogy, i would suggest more of an engine/the gas that goes into it pairing. but the quality of the amplifier you choose is so special, that no matter how humble or elaborate the loudspeakers you bond with, i am sometimes overwhelmed by how much "life" is either added to or stripped away from the music depending on a circuit board or a power supply.
yet, in the very beginning, when i had the denon amp, i was completely oblivious to the significance of this often-overlooked "little detail".