High End System Building. How important is the matching, cabling and room? Thoughts ?

I am not sure how you managed to take the "definition of musical" thread and transport it over here to the "synergy of gear" thread, but since you did,

and what you have also did is taken the word "musical" which has a concrete meaning (which is "pertaining to music" in that a musical instrument is an instrument that pertains or produces music) (but then, unfortunately, the word "music" might need to be defined) and also has another less concrete definition (per Mirriam Webster)

having the pleasing harmonious qualities of music

(which is less concrete because what is pleasing to one is not pleasing to all, and that could also apply to a lesser extent to "harmonious")

and then you watched some videos and decided that, armed with what you thought you have gleaned from those videos, you would rewrite the definition of "musical" (with your own rambling stream of consciousness interpretation) And that is fine if it works for you on a personal level. But that is not how language works.

On it’s own, "hot" is somewhat subjective.

"Be careful, that is hot." That is subjective.

"Be careful, , that is 212 degrees f." That is objective.

Objective versus subjective/signs versus symptoms.

So apparently you have listened and watched some quacks that want to give the word "musical" a meaning beyond "pertaining to music" with their own acoustic interpretation and say that there is a "212 degree f definition" of musical sound and that this is so because they say that it is so. And it doesn’t really matter to me one way or the other, but I am simply informing you that language does not work that way. If over a period of time more and more people start watching these guys and enough people start using the definitions that they use, dictionaries will be rewritten and new meanings will be attributed and you (and them) will stand vindicated. And it won’t matter to me either way. But do not hold your breath--this is not liable to happen in your lifetime.

@immatthewj why bother getting a better engine and transmission just make the car faster and better just make it more aerodynamic that will fix all the problems.

I was going to leave the analogies out of this, but this is good.

Obviously aerodynamics PLUS horsepower and torque would be ideal if you wanted to go fast ("fast" being another subjective term). But I once had a ’75 LTD (which by almost all standards is a big ugly boat) with a 460 in it, and I played around with a few things on it and I could get that monster to go over 120 mph and I actually surprised a few people at stoplight races once in a while. If I could have put that motor in a Mach 1, it would have gone even faster.

There is just some equipment that will take you closer to any other piece you have.  Most of the time it will cost you more.  Yeah the room helps. But the equipment is the most important. It’s ok not to want to pay too much. But the fact is that the better stuff gets you closer. It is what it is. 

The way I look at it is that time invested in choosing, configuring and tweaking can result in a much better sounding system. So, let’s say you go all out and invest 1,000 hours and $5K or $10K… invest the same huge amount of time (1,000 hours) and $25K… and your system will sound a lot better… same for $50K… etc.

Investing huge amounts of intelligently used time will result in a better sounding system. But holding time constant, then the financial investment results in a better sounding system. Huge amounts of both are the best way to go.

+1 ghd. Everything matters. Irrelevant which is declared most important. Get the best equipment you can, matched the best you can, set up the best you can. And enjoy