Relative component value to overall SQ.

@N80, I believe that the helpfulness of the responses you receive may benefit from some clarification of the question.

I and I believe some of the others who responded earlier in the thread interpreted your asking about "relative component value to overall SQ," and "where to start and where to put initial emphasis," to have essentially no relation to how funds should be allocated. I interpreted the question as involving the relative importance of the various contributors to the overall resulting SQ. In other words, my interpretation was that you were looking for a general rule of thumb guideline as to the degree to which each contributor should be focused on, in building a system.

Yet some others seem to have interpreted the question as relating to how a given amount of funds should be allocated among the various contributors. Which is a very different question, assuming (as I most certainly do) that in audio the correlation between price and results is far less than perfect. And that interpretation appears to have been reinforced by your post today at 2:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For example, my attribution of 25% to "room optimization" certainly does not mean that 25% of whatever funds may be available should be allocated for that purpose, even as a rough rule of thumb guideline.

So further clarification of the question would seem to be in order.

Regards,
-- Al 

Al, I see what you are saying. When I said "relative value" (in the original post) I meant dollars. Sorry if that wasn't clear. But even if someone just thought I meant the relative importance of each of these components the question is still very easy to answer in a rough estimate of percentages. So dollars or relative importance....either way. At least of few of us figured it out.

In other words, if someone thought I was talking about dollars and laid out their recommended percentages then the new user has an idea of how to allocate his money.

If someone thought I meant only the value of that component to overall SQ, then again, that percentage would likewise direct a newbie toward where he should spend his money.

n80, several people here are trying to tell you that what you think is so obvious is oblivious; percentages in cost allocation guarantee nothing in selection of the gear. That is so because the variance in performance from components of different manufacture is not marginal, but rather large. You seem to be resisting that wisdom, and if so, have at it your way. But, be assured you will not be making any sure progress toward your goal. 

I submit that the technology employ�ed (i.e. speakers of panel, dipole, dynamic, etc.) is for the beginner much more important than the percentage allocated for each element of the system. Also, house sound of a manufacturer is quite important. Experienced audiophiles would likely offer products to consider, not percentages to fulfill. 

Let’s assume that the CDP, DAC, streamer, server or TT are delivering an optimal signal of an optimal recording to the system.

"Optimal"  ...A non-starter, since a "Beginner / Newbie" is way, way more likely to get this wrong than say that component on the tail end of the chain.