Everyone will have preferences, and ideas on how to partition a budget.
Of course everything matters in the absolute.
The hard part is getting the best sound from the whole for a given budget.
I’d argue the best $2k dac/streamer can get 97% of the performance of a $10k dac streamer (give or take, you get the point), but the best $2k speakers will pale in comparison to the best $10k speakers when paired with that best $2k dac.
Just my opinion. Not here to argue. YMMV
Problem is, today’s best $2k dac is not tomorrow’s best $2k dac; but today’s best $10k speaker more likely (than the dac, anyway) to be tomorrow’s best $10k speaker (to extent that even quantifiable). That’s my point, and get’s to what OP was asking about re obsolecense.
My first post I suppose was in some sense broader than what OP was asking. He was interested in amps/pre/source and I kinda broadened it out to whole system because I think you have to look at everything all at once even if only tweaking portion of system, if only to convince yourself you aren't going down a fruitless path
Of course everything matters in the absolute.
The hard part is getting the best sound from the whole for a given budget.
I’d argue the best $2k dac/streamer can get 97% of the performance of a $10k dac streamer (give or take, you get the point), but the best $2k speakers will pale in comparison to the best $10k speakers when paired with that best $2k dac.
Just my opinion. Not here to argue. YMMV
Problem is, today’s best $2k dac is not tomorrow’s best $2k dac; but today’s best $10k speaker more likely (than the dac, anyway) to be tomorrow’s best $10k speaker (to extent that even quantifiable). That’s my point, and get’s to what OP was asking about re obsolecense.
My first post I suppose was in some sense broader than what OP was asking. He was interested in amps/pre/source and I kinda broadened it out to whole system because I think you have to look at everything all at once even if only tweaking portion of system, if only to convince yourself you aren't going down a fruitless path