Which is the most important part of a stereo system?

The best amp/receiver in the world won't make mediocre speakers sound good. Good speakers on a mediocre amp/receiver will still sound good. Spend significantly more on your speakers and sub, just buy a receiver that has the features and build quality you require. In my opinion of course.

I have to go with speakers  .Getting them first ,what you like ,the sound of them.Then you'll know ,what kind of power you need to power those Speakers.Already having an amp that doesn't  have enough power,dampening your speaker choices.

The room embeddings exceed any electronic design potential S.Q. of speakers or any other electronic components in almost all case....

Acoustic embeddings wins all....

Speakers cannot work rightfully in a bad room, at the maximum potential, without mechanical vibration/resonance controls and in a too noisy electrical grid...

Any acoustic engineer will say the same thing...

« Audio is the active communication between the room of the house and the room of your head. Simple» -Groucho Marx



Electronic design is generic, and the same for any room....

But the interaction between the room of the house where the speakers are amid many other things, and the room of your head, is not generic, it is totally indiduated and absolutely unique.... It is from this communication between the 2 rooms that any S.Q. is or is not what it could be.... The resonance/vibrations controls, and the noise floor of the house and room increase or decrease greatly also the S.Q. But the communication between the room acoustic and your ears are the main factor....

Anyway all these 3 embeddings are totally particular in each case....Electronic design is generic, an electronic component need to be embed to express any particular working of his own.... The factors that will influence the working of any electronic design are EXTERNAL to it: another interacting connected gear, the electrical cables of the house and room and all electric appliances, the vibrations and the many sources of all interactive resonances, all that will transform amy electronic component giving to it an individulized behavior and a variable qualitative workings....( i even forget humidity, temperature and the electrical grid in a particular city)

At the end the evaluation of the S.Q. of any working electronic device will be communicated to you by the room acoustic....

No amplifier speak by himself.... the speakers are translators...

The room only speak by himself to your ears....


«If the room speaks, then my ears too»-Groucho Marx

« You said it Groucho, not me» - Harpo marx

Volya Audio Bouquet speakers.. 
 
ALL NEW top of the line Audio Note 300B Meishu Tonmeister Integrated Amp.. 

 Live Music IN YOUR ROOM...

Getting the system optimized to work with the room - rather than against it - is the major key to unlocking your music.

IMO, & IME, of course...

Best,

Jim Smith