Ia a good amp more important than a good DAC?

Garbage out > garbage out.

Yea Martwatkiss. $1 billion dollars and 12+ women. I don't think Thomastrouble is in the same league as Tiger.

Should be the subject of a new thread - "Should I blow a lot of money on hookers now, or should I get the system first?"

good luck getting that one past the moderators! Using the words "blow" and "hookers" a thread title would definitely get some attention. Perhaps you could compile a list of hookers with killer high-end systems at their place of business...but I think that list would be a short one.

Freediver hits the nail on the head here. Yes you do need a good source and a good amp. But it seems to me that you can get a better source that is closer to the sound of a very expensive source for 1/10th the price than you can get an amp. If anyone here knows of a 500 amp that sounds close to as good as a 5000 one I'd love to know about it. I know of DACs that do fall into this category. I've personally just never heard the huge disparity between DACs that I have between amps, price wise that is.

Its a chicken and egg question, one is not much good without the other. Good does not necessarily equate one to one with expense. It depends to a large degree on your system, if you have inefficient speakers with a difficult impedance curve the the amp will cost a lot, K Horns, not so much. But all things considered it is easier to get a good cheap DAC than an amp, their job is easier to do. I have just got a V-DAC and it is close to my $2K+ ones.