Componets first, cables second?

Mechans, is your rig located in Ted Kaczynski's cabin?

Short answer, components first.

Were it me, I'd buy the right CD player for myself, then work with an entity such as The Cable Company ala their "Lending Library" or by trial and error "buying and trying" here on Audiogon to find the cabling that forms a synergistic match with your system.

That being said, I go along with John's effort to steer us towards balance and looking at things in a more holistic manner.

In my opinion, the ultimate answer lies in how you see the future. Are you going to be in a continual flux of upgrade, or do you tend more to buy and keep a component. If it's the former, to be quite honest, it really doesn't matter which you buy first, as folks in this camp never come to a state of equilibrium with their systems in the first place.

this question can be answered by mariasplunge, after some experimenting with his/her own stereo system.

this and other questions like it which frequently appear on other forums, has no definitive answer.

the most important answer can usually be provided by one's own personal experience, rather than the opinions of others.

Tennis - excellent response - says nothing, yet appears to have some deep thought process, while managing to degrade all those who tried to help and address the question. You must have some experience as an academic. Bravo.

Shadorne +++ The absence of a well-accepted, plain, practical engineering-type explanation of the how and why a more expensive piece of wire should work much better in audio than an appropriate (but ordinary) piece of wire raises too many questions for my liking +++

There are a myriad of perfectly rational and sound reasons why one particular cable will work better than another. Since different cables all have measurable capacitance, inductance, reactance and have different levels of screening, it is not possible for said cables not to affect the signals the pass along in very different ways. (If you ever bother to build an amplifier with point-to-point wiring you would be very aware of this.)

I am somewhat perplexed that you are eluding there are an absence of factual explanations. You would not if you had done even the most basic research.

+++ The argument also happens to be a marketing dream because the logic says that you simply don't hear as much cable differences with "unresolving" gear. +++

This happens to be patently true.

Regards
Paul