Easiest compromise for weakest link?

My center channel, cables and amp. I can always turn it off and go phantom -I rarely lose much, and many times I actually gain by sending that signal through the mains.

For all but reference caliber systems you can scrimp on cables/interconnects/wire and not take too big a hit sonically. Going to a manufacturer's mid level offerings in wire can generate big cost savings with only a marginal loss of sound quality.

Nate, I'll assume you're just talking about two channel (since my son tells me it's always good to assume).

I would save the money on cables/power cords first, then downgrade the digital front end if further cuts were needed(Since everyone knows that Vinyl RULES!).

John

Getting by on Signal power cords,afraid to hear what I might be missing,though am so happy with the experiments as is,Bob

I am going to play to this very interesting problem in its toughest version, the single-source two-channel one.

It just doesn't seem like a hard call to me if the system in question has more than one source, or more than two channels. Anyway Jmcgrogan2 called it for a twin analog-digital front end, and Snofun3 did it for multichannel.

I can't see downgrading wire. Mine didn't cost enough to represent a serious cash value, and one cable is custom anyway. It would be the speakers, Nrchy. I went through a lot of upgrades with lesser speaks than the ones I have now, and I still had fun. I would downgrade them first.

I may even have to do it in real life. My spouse wants family TV in the living room and that's going to cut seriously into my listening. If it turns out to be too much, I may go with monitors in my private room.