What improvement came first?

speakers first, amps after

For example, in order to hear the difference between amps, wouldn’t you need better speakers first to hear the difference? So in my thinking, speakers advanced ahead of amps.  It was only once speakers became good enough, that the more subtle differences could be heard. But is that correct?

Not to my thinking process, no.  There is one implicit inferences which I disagree with:

A speaker that is resolving of amplifiers is going to be better at musical resolution

 
And I completely reject that notion today.  I didn't used to.  What I have found instead is that some speakers are more demanding than others.  Often due to impedance dips and high phase angles in the mid to low bass.   So at the extreme, what good does it do me to buy speakers which only sound great with megabuck amplifiers?

Further, OK, so this speaker can tell me the difference between a Parasound and  Krell.  Whoopee.  Is that going to tell me anything about how it plays?  Rarely is the answer here yes.

As I was discussing in another thread, the single piece of gear which makes you stop buying other gear tends to be good room acoustic treatments.  They will outlive your gear, and you'll be happier with a wider variety of gear, and stop going the cable and tweak merry go round.  Get yourself a great sounding room, and you'll settle into a great system rather quickly.  Without this, you'll be churning amps and speakers forever.

So in my thinking, speakers advanced ahead of amps.  It was only once speakers became good enough, that the more subtle differences could be heard. But is that correct? What improves came before other ones? Did tone arms need to improve ahead of more advanced cartridges? If so, then improvements of one part can totally depend on advancement of another part first.

Not even. It doesn't matter what you have, a change anywhere is the same. There's no such thing as system matching, synergy, or weak link. Everything is what it is, and will be heard for what it is, regardless. 

You seem to think Linn couldn't show how important the turntable is except that speakers had gotten better first. When in fact the turntable he made was so much better than the speakers of the day those exact same turntables are used and still sound outstanding, we can see clearly the Linn was superior in caliber to the speakers of the day, proving that way back then they were the "strong link" if you want to call it that. 


Which blows out your thesis, since Linn was able to develop that turntable in spite of there being no speakers (or amps, or interconnects, or speaker cables, or power cords) that were up to the level of the Linn at the time it came out.

This is all able to happen only because you can hear all these little improvements made anywhere in the system even if the downstream gear is lower quality. You just have to listen for them. But they are there.