Help: Order of importance: Pre, Amp, DAC, speakers

IMO the components that have the most effect on sound are (in order)

Speakers, amp, pre, source/DAC (these are the same thing, really).

Just my 2 cents. I purchased the best speaker I could afford 25 years (Kef 104 /2's ago and drove them with an Onkyo TX4500 reciever at the time. I then systematically upgraded the electronics with moderatly priced seperate componenents. Each step made the speakers sound better and better. Ultimately, I had a set of target price points in mind and a performance level that I wanted. So, using the garbage in... garbage out theory...aka build from the source upwards... I purchased in order a Levenson 31 transport, then a Sonic Frontiers DAC, then an Audio Research LS 15 Pre and finally a Classe delta 2200 Amp. Each step gave new life to the speakers. Now I am at the stage where my speakers and DAC are the limiting factors. (Well... really its the budget...but ). So, My advice would be... Identify a goal and come up with a flexible plan that gets you there in the time frame you are comfortable with.

Tcatman, I agree with you 100%....

One's speakers and the acoustic properties of one's room and set up are by far the most influential elements in the sound one hears.

The difference between a $1000 pair of speakers and a $10,000 pair of speakers will in most cases be staggering, but the difference between a $1,000 amp/preamp/cd player and a $10,000 amp/pre/cdp will often be quite subtle.

Even the best speakers produce relatively large amounts of distortion and have frequency response deviations of +/- 3db. Most electonics produce <1% distortion and have a frequency response within +/- .1db from 20hz-20khz.

No matter how linear and distortion free one's speakers and electronics are, once the room comes into play everything goes out the window. No transport will fix a -15db null at 50hz.

The difference between a $1000 pair of speakers and a $10,000 pair of speakers will in most cases be staggering, but the difference between a $1,000 amp-preamp-cd player and a $10,000 amp-pre-cdp will often be quite subtle.

This is a partly true statement. At the entry level where speakers at or below $1000 are a possibility, the speakers are tremendously important. Speakers at this level are very limited and tend to have lots of colorations. But with higher end systems where the speakers are never going to be less than $3-4K, there are many very capable loudspeakers, all of which can do a very good job. Here the electronics become much more important. I would also disagree that the differences between a $1000 amp/preamp/cd and $10,000 ones are subtle.

but Linn touted this *particularly* at the time they were only selling source components in the audio market.

Actually, Ivor is still saying the very same thing, as he just did in the recent magazine interview/debate with David Wilson (Stereophile, I think).