Why did you choose the components and speakers that are in your system?

I was an electrostatic and ribbon speaker fan for decades and spent most of my time and money trying to make them sound better... first massive power, then flesh out the sound to be more natural. But when I would make a change, one genera of music would sound better at the expense of all the others. Hearing details and bass seemed to be sonic goal. I listen to all sorts of music..

Then I got season tickets to the symphony about ten years ago. Completely unconsciously I radically changed directions and out of the blue (consciously out of the blue, subconsciously on purpose) bought some dynamic speakers (Sonus Faber Cremona) as a test set. I had heard these speakers while helping a friend pick out some audio equipment years earlier... I was struck by what I thought unique sound... not positively of negatively. Within a couple weeks I ordered some new ones of higher caliber. Then swapped equipment all to Tubed Audio Research Equipment. What happened was that with each upgrade my system got closer to real music instead of highlighting details or slam and each time all genera sounded better, not just one! My system got more and more musical... the details were still there but not highlighted so you would have to listen to the system and not the music. Now I am captivated by the music and not the system. You can see my system by clicking on my ID.

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In retrospect what happened was I found an empirical ruler, the live acoustic symphony... instead of the current album I liked. In the past I would find test albums for reviewing possible new components for which I liked the sound. Through system component selection I would try to increase my enjoyment these CDs and to improving the obvious traits of the system (details, slam, low noise). But having the symphony as a standard, it turned me toward more musical... I can’t even begin to tell you how important a change this was. Suddenly not listening to the venue but becoming fully emotionally engaged by the music. I enjoyed the journey but if I could do it again I would have focused on lower powered, tube based systems with dynamic speakers from the beginning and had much more musical systems while getting to where I am today.

You have to experience the kind of music you listen to in many good live venues often over time for the ultimate reference for how things should sound. Pleasing sound is different and much easier. It’s all a matter of what your goals are.

I will echo what most here have said, start with the speakers.  Do a lot of listening to both different styles of speakers and then different brands.  @mapman made a great point about choosing speakers that best match your room.  In my experience that is mostly related to room size.  You can still stick with the style or designer you like but make sure they are large enough to fill a big room or small enough to not overpower a smaller room.  I am a proponent of multiple subs (and not your main speakers)  to control the very low bass (i.e., below about 40 or 50 Hz).  Once you have your speakers selected, make sure you have enough power to control them.  One last thing is to consider how you wish to interact with the system.  I wanted mine as simple as possible.  All my components remain powered on all the time, and I do not use physical media.  If I want to hear music, I simply pick up my iPad, select what I want to hear, and press volume on a remote control.  Others are fine with systems that require more tinkering around, i.e., tubes, warm up, and/or physical media.

Don’t overlook dispersion characteristics when choosing speakers for a room.  Also consider how far away from speakers you will typically be listening from.