A stupid question for which there's no sensible answer.


I know, I know. At least I've labeled it properly.

Here goes: of the following elements of a system, how would you rank their influence on the sound? In other words, generally, which would someone want to upgrade or prioritize, and in what order,  if all of the following pieces were inferior to an amp/preamp and speakers they were happy with? Power cables, connector cables. speaker cables. streaming source, music source, dac (I vote for this one as #1), room treatment, speaker placement, type of chair, earwax quotient, what you ate for lunch, etc.

I hereby give my permission for everyone to tell me this is an idiotic question since the real answer is: it depends. (But I did put a "generally" in there somewhere). Anyway, I prefer that we debate this based on what we've experienced when we've tinkered. So I guess I'm really interested in anecdotes.

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All is important....But even the source is not on the level of power than the room acoustic...

Why is not evident for all?

Because most people think that their room is good if not good OK...

Most people cannot fathom the abyssal, total, complete difference between the controlled acoustic settings of a room and his absence or lacks...



Anybody can be an expert on source and decree that digital, turntable, tonearm, phonostage is important .... indeed they are very important.... ANYBODY know that and can listen easily to the differences.... It is not difficult to change elements of source and compare...

But who has try to transform completely incrementally his room? And after that compare?

Very few....It is way more complicated to figure out than a simple source change....Trust me....

I did it....It takes me 2 years and many materials and devices of my own at NO cost tough....It is not perfect at all...

BUT there is no upgrade which can rival with this, and even not for example the change of a bad dac for a good turntable .... This is a small change compared to trust me... BUT WHY?

Because the room is a MAGNIFIER GLASS of all changes on a scale that surpass all and each one separate changes ....Learn that by heart....

Why do you think rich audiophiles pay more for a room than for all the gear? are they stupid?


The room is so important that ANY informed acoustician, not sellers of speakers or amplifiers, any scientist acoustician will confirm to you that :

"NO SPEAKERS BEAT THE ROOM»- Anonymus acoustician


But someone who has never experiment with his room can speak of cables or other "improvements".... He can boast about dac or vinyl.... There is differences between all these and big one, yes...

But none of these change can compare to a very well dress room... NONE...

My opinion dont come from a book, my opinion come from my experiment....

If there is so much desperation and frustration in audio community, and lost of money , the main cause is this ignorance....

I will not repeat about the importance of the other 2 embeddings.... Some will accuse me of old age advanced mumbling ... 😁
It seems that my post has spawned a host of impassioned viewpoints and debates.
Cool. I was hoping it would. And it's totally okay with me if people belittle my premise or go "off topic." These are just more viewpoints as far as I'm concerned. I can let you be you and think what you think and write what you write. Why not? It's not like you're eating the last piece of cheesecake. (This is the last act for which I feel shame).

It's not like you're eating the last piece of cheesecake. (This is the last act for which I feel shame)
I knew someone must have stool mine in my fridge..... Damn you....😊
A friend who had a veterinarian appointment the next morning, was asked to bring the dog's sample. Worried that the dog wouldn't "go" in time, collected it the day before and preserved it in the refrigerator. He found that a stool in the fridge was a very bad idea: :)