[Rclark]

In my experience it goes

1) speaker choice, and that speaker properly chosen for room size and placed with some care.

2) very, very close to where it's almost a tie: choice of amplifier.

3) Room Treatments. Again, very close in importance to the top two, but a clear 3rd.

4) DAC/PREAMP, whether seperate or integrated. I do place Preamp above DAC, however.

5) Source player (often just a transport these days).

6) power conditioning (many modern devices dont even really need this and it can actually be a detriment, external conditioning)

7) so distant from position 1 as to be almost irrelevant : cables, interconnects.

8 ) so far from position 1 it's Pluto far out, "system synergy", rubber footers, spikes, magic ceramic bowls, crystals in your power box, chakra points, gold connects, rhodium receptacles,  etc. Some of this is useful, but it's ultra fine tuning type stuff to the point where you are probably just fooling yourself.

[Guy 13]

My list of system component's level of importance is a carbon copy of Rclark.

Guy 13 on planet Vietnam.

In my experience it goes

1) speaker choice, and that speaker properly chosen for room size and placed with some care.

2) very, very close to where it's almost a tie: choice of amplifier.

3) Room Treatments. Again, very close in importance to the top two, but a clear 3rd.

4) DAC/PREAMP, whether seperate or integrated. I do place Preamp above DAC, however.

5) Source player (often just a transport these days).

6) power conditioning (many modern devices dont even really need this and it can actually be a detriment, external conditioning)

7) so distant from position 1 as to be almost irrelevant : cables, interconnects.

8 ) so far from position 1 it's Pluto far out, "system synergy", rubber footers, spikes, magic ceramic bowls, crystals in your power box, chakra points, gold connects, rhodium receptacles,  etc. Some of this is useful, but it's ultra fine tuning type stuff to the point where you are probably just fooling yourself.

[maplegrovemusic]

Would agree with first two posts . Spot on .

[Folsom]

1. Power Conditioning

2. Amplifier

3. Source (TT must include Herbies matt)

4. Cables (not fancy stuff, just comparable or the stereo won't sound right at all)

5. Speakers

6. The little stuff

I can't listen to any system for that long without power conditioning. The amplifier defines any and all speakers to a silly degree. Unfortunately many amplifiers just don't qualify themselves to the league where they mean more than the speakers because they're simply mediocre. But once you've got a good one you can use a range of speakers. I'd rather have my amplifier with my speakers than another amplifier that can't hack it with some really expensive speakers. The source is next because everything an amplifier can do, it does it because of the source. I put cables in front of speakers only because I could never be happy with some cables so poor they were an utter block to all quality of sound. The speakers are so low because I can live with a slew of different lower audiophile end speakers. Yes I want better - who doesn't? - but what keeps me listening has never been a pair of speakers.

I think your 6 on the list Rclark, is unfounded. The only amplifier with any real sort of filtration in it mentioned in this forum as of late is the Crown XLS. The only amplifier that has on numerous occasion sounded better straight to the wall is the Ncore. In both cases they benefit from power conditioning if done right, and both have been reported to be true. It's not voodoo, but a lot of it isn't done right.

[G Georgopoulos]

1-speakers
2-source
3-amplifiers

 

[glynnw]

A question to ask in each category is what is the range from good to bad.  To my ears the difference between a good and a bad speaker is much greater than the difference between a good and bad amp, pre, dac, conditioner, tweak, whatever.  So speaker is #1.

I think Rclark is right on the money.

[S Clark]

Speakers, room treatment
Then amp source and pre are close
Cables and receptacles
But most of all is good material. Crappy recordings negate all else

[DaveC113]

It's a system and any part of it is capable of making it sound miserable. Weakest link and all that. Everything is equally important imo.

So the most important part is whatever is holding it back the most.

[Folsom]

I guess when I think of this, I think of everything being at least somewhat audiophile quality.

[mjosef]

Not a Lab topic, imo.

[JohnR]

It's a system and any part of it is capable of making it sound miserable. Weakest link and all that. Everything is equally important imo.

So the most important part is whatever is holding it back the most.

Yes, agree entirely.

I was thinking of a car by way of analogy: "List in order of importance: engine, brakes, steering, tyres". Well, you need all of them, but say you were trying to make the car go faster around a track, you don't spend all of your money on the engine and none on the brakes. That's just bad engineering. You spend the money and time so that overall, you get the most benefit, at this point in time. (OK I know zip about racing cars, but the analogy makes sense right?)

I can't help also thinking that the "list" approach tends to make you focus on the parts rather than (as DaveC113 say) the system as a whole and what you are trying to accomplish. Case in point, no mention of subwoofers on the list - rubber footers are listed, but not subwoofers. Oops

[apollophono]

Ok, I'm gonna go out on a limb.  I'm not nearly as intelligent
as many of this forum, but I have to think GIGO.  Garbage in
garbage out.  Thus, the source is the most important for me.

A crappy cd player will produce crappy sound regardless of amp
speakers etc.  A turntable not set up properly and of poor
quality will produce lousy information through the rest of the
chain. 

I guess I'm old school in the sense that Linn Sondek use to
profess the same as a general rule.  I still think it holds true
today. 

Ok, everybody can start laughing at me now.   

[Early B.]

1. power conditioning
2. source
3. DAC
4. cables
5. preamp
6. amp
7. speakers

Speakers are last because I could randomly swap out speakers with any of my audiophile friends and still enjoy my system, but wouldn't consider doing that with any other component. 

[Speedskater]

As a given, all the components need to be functioning correctly and have an accurate output.
This is not always easy with digital/DSP products.  Some seem to have a mind of their own.  They may not be outputting what you think they are outputting.

Top Level:
1] The room and it's treatment
2] The loudspeakers
3] A power amplifier that is well suited to drive the above loudspeakers

2nd Level
1,2,3] Phono cartridge, pre-amp & tone-arm that are compatible

3rd Level
1] Pre-amp, receiver or control unit needs to be able to input all your different analog and digital inputs.

4th Level
1] Most of the other components
2] AC power, signal interconnect & speaker cables and cords need to be at the Blue Jeans Cable quality level.

Basement
1] The list is way too long to even start.



 

[brother love]

I have a $5,000 mid-fi 2 channel audio/ video system (excl. plasma tv) & did a quick check of % invested for system components. The results are interesting & not what I expected:

(2) Sources 30%: Mac Mini incl. USB/SPDIF converter & Oppo Blu-ray
GIK Acoustics room treatments incl. sound measuring equip. 18%
GR Research N3 speakers 17%
TBI Millenia MG3 Amp 11%
PI Audio MagikBUSS power conditioning 9%
Misc: IC's, PC's, tubes, etc. 8%
Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11 Preamp/DAC 7%

So level of importance I guess in my case (which I think applies to most of us) is based on what I was willing to spend for a given item over several years of system building (of course this doesn't include buying/ selling stuff over that same time period either).

Now if I was buying a total $5k system in the span of a few weeks, I would invest more (like I have typically done in the past) on speakers for sure.  Funny how it turned out on this current system ...

[Freo-1]

As a given, all the components need to be functioning correctly and have an accurate output.
This is not always easy with digital/DSP products.  Some seem to have a mind of their own.  They may not be outputting what you think they are outputting.

Top Level:
1] The room and it's treatment
2] The loudspeakers
3] A power amplifier that is well suited to drive the above loudspeakers

2nd Level
1,2,3] Phono cartridge, pre-amp & tone-arm that are compatible

3rd Level
1] Pre-amp, receiver or control unit needs to be able to input all your different analog and digital inputs.

4th Level
1] Most of the other components
2] AC power, signal interconnect & speaker cables and cords need to be at the Blue Jeans Cable quality level.

Basement
1] The list is way too long to even start.

I mostly agree with your assessment.  My one delta would be to place the preamp on the top level with the power amp.  When I switched out the preamp to the Thomas Meyer 6AH4 design, the tube power amps sounded as if they had undergone a major upgrade.  The overall performance was improved markedly.  I was surprised at the level of improvement.  The noise floor is actually lower than most high end solid state equipment, most of which was brought on by the preamp.





 

[Tyson]

In order of importance, IMO:

Room
Speakers
Acoustic Treatments
Source (ie, hirez or vinyl or standard rez)
Amps
Preamp
Everything Else

[underdog64]

1.Source
2.Speakers
3.Amp

[Speedskater]

I mostly agree with your assessment.  My one delta would be to place the preamp on the top level with the power amp. 

In many cases I would move the amplifier down a notch, but some speaker and amp combinations can be a Go/No Go situation.

In a system where all the components are operating properly, the room and speakers overwhelm the small differences in the other components.

[SoCalWJS]

In order of importance, IMO:

Room
Speakers
Acoustic Treatments
Source (ie, hirez or vinyl or standard rez)
Amps
Preamp
Everything Else

Pretty close to my opinion as well

Speakers
Room
acoustic treatments
DAC
amp/pre amp
power conditioning
cables/everything else

This is assuming that we're not talking "el cheapo" interconnects and speaker wire.

If you have a vinyl rig, cartridge, tonearm, and TT go right to the top of the electronics chain.

And of course, GIGO - if it's a crappy recording, it's too late.