Which IC is more important?

Your apology accepted gratefully Leafs. I hope you accept mine.

I counldn't agree with you more on the source. When I first put everything together, I started, like many I'm sure, with the speakers, cuz they're the sexiest thing to purchase in the whole system. I spent so much on speakers and amplification, I thought I could skimp on the CDP, cuz bits is bits, right? WRONG. What a difference the quality of CDP makes! I firmly believe now that every part of the chain affects the other parts. This is what led to the question. I wish I could eliminate all the "weak points" of my system, but it takes time and money. Short on both!

Getting yours and others input on what you've tried and liked or tried and hated, gives me a starting place. I'm not trying to "ace the test" without studying, I'm willing to put in lumps and bumps to see what sounds best in my system; I'm just trying to see where others have gone before me to help pick which paths I'd wander down as well.

I know this: I'd rather ask you all for advice than rely on Stereophile or TAS or other commercial sites, because I TRUST YOU ALL MORE.

No blood no foul...

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.

More important. I couldnt edit even though it was the last post.

RGD, where's the rest of your post? ;-)

I hope you believe that I'm sincerely sorry about how I felt about your first post. Thank you for sticking around. I'm learning to be more open minded.