Source, source, source... the MOST important piece of the puzzle. A speaker will only do what it is told. Now, sure there are some crappy speakers out there that have no hope no matter what you put in front of them, but the speakers are not AT ALL the most important piece of the puzzle. I have seen/heard so many setup lately that had a ton of $$$ in the front of a very modestly priced loudspeaker and sound superb.
As far as speaker cables... the Clear Day stuff is AMAZING at the price he is asking for it. My $150 Clear Day solid-core silver (single run) replaced a pair of Audioquest Gibralter ($1,650 - I paid less than $400 used) and the difference was not subtle. Seeing people drop $5,000 or more on speaker cables (even if they have millions of dollars) makes me sad.
As far as speaker cables... the Clear Day stuff is AMAZING at the price he is asking for it. My $150 Clear Day solid-core silver (single run) replaced a pair of Audioquest Gibralter ($1,650 - I paid less than $400 used) and the difference was not subtle. Seeing people drop $5,000 or more on speaker cables (even if they have millions of dollars) makes me sad.