I have to jump in here about this source as being most important idea. Although RGD's pithy advice is on track as far as electronics go, Leafs is in error when he says that your source is more important than your speakers.
If your goal is accuracy, the most important component in any system is its weakest link. As between amps, preamps and source components, the largest errors are generally found in source components. It is, therefore, good advice to get the best cd player or record playing equipment that you can afford and skimp on amplification if you have to make that choice. And, in the context of this thread, the IC between the cdp and preamp is usually more important than the one between the preamp and amp. Not always, though, depending on certain peculiarities of some preamps.
But, the reason Leafs is off track, is that speakers deviate from accurate, flat, frequency response and accurate dynamics to a far greater degree than cd players or even phono cartridges, and therefore have the potential to do much more damage to what you hear than anything else in your system. Speakers have character. I happen to believe that my favorites have less of that than any others, but that may be because they sound right to me and wouldnt sound the same to you. No question but that your speakers are mgo6important than anything else in your system. They are the weakest link.
