You’re just upset because we caught you on the "vs" thing and the unfounded idea it’s one or the other. You are lost, dead lost. If you think a Bose Wave Radio can sound like a 300B tube amp in any room you are so lost it is fair to wonder if you are even on the same planet.
The greatest room in the world cannot turn a Bose Wave radio into a captivating stereo, but the greatest electronics in the world is going to sound insanely good even in a walk-in closet. Just not as good as in a bigger room. The room clearly is way less important than the electronics, or else there would be no good car systems. But there are some freaking insanely good car systems, so there goes that one.
What would be reasonable, intelligent, and defensible is to say the room is as worthy an element of a sound system as anything else. No more important than the AC line, the speaker cables, the cartridge, or any other component in the chain. But that for some reason is the last thing certain people will admit.
Now go ahead and attack me for getting it absolutely right one more time. Go on. Three, two, one....