I continue to struggle with the question how much something "matters" to the sound. Reviewers (myself included) will often use hyperbole when describing the impact of a change. I wanted to ground myself in some reality knowing that the complete listening system from the recording to my ears could only reach a maximum of 100% fidelity. You would base this on 100% of the best you ever experienced... or be very cynical and say how close to reality you got. I chose the former.
I built a spreadsheet and forced myself to score all my components. The "score" is just the subjective measure of how close I think I am to the best I have ever experienced. As you can see, the recording quality, room and speakers take up the lion's share [I am sure you would not agree with how I weighted each item]. Things get pretty silly when you start talking about isolation gizmos, etc. Yes, almost anything/everything makes a difference... but scored this way, I can gain some objective perspective on this highly subjective hobby.
![Duh :duh:](https://www.audiocircle.com/Smileys/audiocircle/duh.gif)
Hope you find this thought provoking.