Poll: Most impactful component

@jjss49 

Reading what you wrote made me reconsider, because I realized that I have changed speakers 20 times over the years before settling in long term, and therefore I voted with my wallet, and over the years speakers were apparently the most critical link.

@roxy54

it is all important of course, after all it is a chain, so the ’weak link’ logic applies

and folks who say it is the source do have a point, the signal starts there, once purity is lost, it is never recovered

but my thinking is, as knowledgeable, experienced audiophiles, we should know how to get the source purity to a very high level, then the speakers (assumed to driven properly by amplification) are the actual ’musical instrument’ that electromechanically transduces the electrical signal to physical music that we hear... so that (and how the speakers couple to the listening room) is, to me, the most important/critical aspect for each of us to get right, and in most cases, the most difficult

Agreed....the "weakest link" theory still applies, and the speakers are what interacts with the room and the amplifier, so I’d still focus on speakers with the understanding that you still need to build the system around them. The system will never be great until that weakest link is pretty good, and synergizes well with everything else.

@tee_dee  - Cables, without a doubt

I sent my nephew interconnect cables and a speaker cables

• he could not believe the transformation of his very entry level system
• he now has an idea what the audiophile hobby is all about

My "modest" system (MSRP Around $20k) outperforms systems costing many times more thanks to the excellent cables I have installed

I also have a mini System which with the right cables sound pretty amazing

But you have to know about the science behind good cables in order to make the right choices - just like selecting a new components

I regard my cables as the most important component in my system

Regards - Steve