Do you belong more to souce first or to speakers first school of thought ?

If you measure distortion in a contemporary music reproduction system on a per component basis, speakers contribute orders of magnitude greater distortion than any other component. At least in solid state and ultralinear tube systems. We are talking single digit distortion percentage figures versus 0.000025%. So it’s not even a question for me.

1. choose the speakers

2. place the speakers (you can do this with math and geometry, there is a right spot)

3. fix the room

4. fix the speakers

5. choose a signal standard (I favor +4 dBU but if you like -10 dBV you do you)

6. choose your components

7. fix your gain staging (if you have components that will let you do that)

8. now you are ready to hear various source components on a level playing field

The listeners chasing euphonic distortion with low power amps and very sensitive speakers 105 dB/W or more!) are playing in an entirely different sport and may have different rules entirely.

Budget, then wife, then room, then speakers.

It all matters.  Having said that I don’t think that the emphasis on the source should be what it was 50 years ago because the quality of the sources has improved so much.  Midfi turntables and digital sources sound pretty good these days, as a rule.  I’d rather play a $1000 streamer or turntable through $10K speakers than the reverse 

In regard to this subject,  back in the mid 1980's  I was visiting a Linn Naim dealer who had some articles written regarding audio.  One was called "The Hifi Hierarchy" written by Linn Audio founder Ivor Tiefenbrun.  Here,  Ivor described how the front end of the audio system was the most important part of the system.  More so than its amplification or speakers.  Ivor's rationale was simple enough for this belief. Specifically, that it is impossible for amplification or speakers to correct the deficiencies produced by a source component. As such, Linn Naim dealers would encourage those interested in purchasing a new audio system to focus most of their expenditure on a Linn LP 12 turntable, and then build the rest of their system around the LP 12.    Dealers would often sell LP 12 turntables with Naim Naits and Linn Kan speakers, and then allow their customers to trade in the equipment for full value within one year of the original purchase in order to upgrade to a better Naim amplifier and Linn speakers.  This program worked quite  well during the 1980's and was quite lucrative for both Linn and Naim as well as their exclusive dealer network. Eventually both companies  went their separate ways, but back in the day, they had one of the most successful partnerships in the audio business.