Not that I wouldn't rather have a balanced system all at once, but if I were starting out building my 'dream' system (whether to a particular price bracket or not), I'd buy my dream speakers first and work back through the chain. That is the only way to be systematically sure of what you will end up with. Nrchy's point about lesser source components not retrieving as much of the signal, and Paulwp's point about them more greatly distorting it, are both true as far as they go. But while the signal is traveling 'forward' from source to speaker through the system, your ears are listening 'back' through the system from speakers to source. Imagine your system as several windowpanes placed one behind the other - without having a clear window closest to you to 'view' back through, you will not be able to see (hear) well enough to make informed decisions about choices pertaining to the first layers (sources).
I've posted about this opinion of mine before, but to briefly recap: The first component is the listening room; the speakers must be chosen appropriately to the room; the amp must be chosen appropriately to the speakers (speaker cables chosen here too); the preamp should simply be as transparent, accurate, and neutral as possible (same for interconnects here) while still maintaing the level of functionality you'll need based on your number and comlexity of sources and outboard devices; with the components that must always be engaged in the chain (room, speakers, amp, preamp) then taken care of, the source components can be individually chosen for each source path knowing with a good degree of confidence that (unlike if they were chosen first) what you prefer when choosing will be what you end up with at system completion (interconnects can be chosen to fine-tune here, as well as power cords). The one great exception to this 'rule' of mine is the AC power and conditioning, which it could make sense to go full out with from the beginning, but that's not imperative. If I had to allocate funds progressively and upgrade in the future, I'd first lay the foundation with the speakers I really wanted, then the best amplification for them I could afford and still get my sources together, and then incementally upgrade the sources knowing I had the 'clear window' through which to listen to my progress and make my choices.
P.S. - Swampwalker, it's funny you should mention ML and NHT; I just went up to Philly where my brother recently moved, to by a Levinson 380S preamp from an A'gon member (the quest continues, and yes, it's slightly 'out of sequence' according to my above rant, though not entirely, but that's another story...), and my bro (not an audiophile) had SuperOnes being powered by his mid-line Sherwood receiver from a Pioneer DVD/CD source. I was quite disappointed with the pretty awful sound he was getting, since I thought the NHT's were supposed to be fairly decent (although he was apparently unconcerned, maybe even happy, it truly stank - I did what little I could tweaking his tone controls). I had fantasies of taking his speakers back down to my place and inserting them in my system to pass judgement, or of bringing up some of my idle replaced gear and wires to sub out with in his system and see what I could do. But I'm going to show valor through discretion and restraint, and leave the poor kid alone...
