Speaker priority: high or low???

As I posted way back when, I agree completely with Zaikesman. I might take it one step further and put more emphisis on the room. I do hope people have read this thread from the begining.

Yes Unsound, the room. I wouldn't have gone the way I did if I hadn't realized I have a great room. I forget that isn't a given understanding.

My two cents worth and I'm new at this.

I got the bug a couple years ago and bought a pair of ML Aerius i's and powered them with a decent 10 year old Denon integrated amp. Serious upgrade for me but I knew the Denon wasn't doing justice to the ML's.

Here comes the Anthem AVM2/MCA5 and the difference is night and day. So for me, my first three windows front to back are clean. And the tuner in the AVM2 is close to CD quality sound.

However I believe that the the pre and the amp are interchangable on the priority list. They have to work together. There may an amp OR a pre that would dial me in. I give them equal value in the chain. And the source comes last.

Bottom line from this newbie is that the room is number one by far (my room won't load bass) and then move backwards from the speakers to the source.

Good point Unsound. If I decided to drop a really large amount, say $100K, on a new system from scratch, I'd be seriously considering allocating the first big chunk to comprehensive room treatment. In fact, it wouldn't be at all crazy to my mind to take $85K of that $100K and allocate it to new construction of a purpose-built, acoustically designed and treated dedicated listening room, and then put a $15K system in it with the remainder. (Not that I have any immediate plans to put my money where my mouth is...I'm just messing around with gear waiting for the day when I'm living in a place I intend to stay, but I'll never do more than spot treatment on a trial and error basis...no $100K system 'investments' for me... :-)

After I buy my new speakers I am looking at adding on to our house. A listening room is one of the things I plan to work on, of course the pretext is to gain a better master bedroom suite upstairs. Without that and a little kitchen addition I don't think my wife would go for it.
I just want to say that I completely agree with everything everbody said throughout this entire thread. Except of course for...