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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ill listen to a $500 audio system and be polite and say Sounds pretty Good
Then run like hell to my house and get my ears fixed . Let’s get that right
If i read a post of someone saying that the price is an indication of sound quality, more than electrical grid controls, more than vibrations controls and even more than acoustics basic laws i will not go to cleaning my brain to be polite but i will clean the post out of my eyes....

Oups i apologize to you....I am too rude and injust, i just realize that you dont speak about ALL 500 hundred systems but about one in bad settings.... Am i Correct ? If yes i deeply apologize for my free sarcasm.... If not i am sorry anyway....my system value is 500 bucks.... I listened system of very higher cost and i dont want them in their actual room and house settings....Mine is better... Audio simple law....
I’m still wondering if a very complex room could be a good room, audio wise.
It absolutely can as long as you are willing to put in the work to make it so.

The goal doesn't have to be perfection.

What are you hearing now that you don't like?
When the room is bad going more near field is always an effective solution.

So are headphones. 🚬🥸

But truth is there is almost always a way to tackle most any room without having to go nuts on expensive treatments if you learn to assess the room properly and choose the right speakers to work well in it. Speakers with wide dispersion patterns typically help.