what is more important ?

The Barbarian?

“to crush your enemies
and hear the lamentation of the women”

Many good points made here. I tend to side with the approach of addressing the weakest link first. Yes, this can lead to a sort of component leap-frog, but eventually you'll end up with a well-balanced system. So don't worry about which component to upgrade first, only worry about synergy issues. If you like making improvements in small increments, with small budget increases, it's best to buy pre-owned.

Speakers then room for me.

A few weekends ago, I went to someones house who purchased a power amplifier from me, as I have been selling off much of my collection, locally. The purpose of my visit was to help him to fine tune his system. I brought with me some of my cds that I know very well, and trust them, to tweak a system. Of these, I played a few test tracks from the Stereophile Test CD, # 3. What amazed this individual the most, and always find it an amazing demo, was the " localization tracks ", in which the voice and footsteps were " furthest from the stage ", " most front left of stage, most front right of the stage ", center of the stage, etc., and the walking to and from the microphone. I have always known, that the microphone placement, in, and on the recordings, were substantial, in how we interpret things such as " imaging ", " soundstaging ", " depth ", etc. Also, the mixing consoles, used to create echo, delay, etc. My point I am trying to make here, is, in order to determine what the most significant " piece " of a system is, or, as a " whole ", one needs to have a reference to go by, to help one to help the listener to determine what he or she likes, wants, and expects, out of a system. Without this, it is all a merry go round. I helped this individual out, and used, Stevie Ray Vaughn's " Tin Pan Alley " from "Couldn't Stand The Weather ", as a reference of mine, because it is a studio recording, done live, in a single take, without overdubs, or using too much trickery, and gives a good account of a simple, stellar performance of just a few amazing musicians, which makes listening, so very easy to follow. As a recording, it lacks nothing, and I have used it throughout my career ( I am not alone ), in putting systems together for people whom I worked with as clients. Our systems, every piece of them, every component, every wire, is to reproduce the " RECORDINGS ", and I feel, this is the first, and foremost, piece of the puzzle, and with this, everything else, will fall in place....or not. Sorry for my rant, but I have heard " stellar " gear, fall apart on this single track, and on some " mediocre " equipment, shine. Enjoy ! MrD.

Speakers, room, and driving amplifier ( s ). At the same time, I can also say : Transport, digital cable, dac, ic, amp, speaker and room. This one track makes everything very obvious. A must have for everyone ( i posted this on the music thread quite a while ago ).