[warnerwh]

The fact that preamplifiers, amplifiers and CD players have very good if not excellent linearity seems like their accuracy is almost overlooked when trying to make a good/great sounding system.  What I'm trying to say is when you design and build a house you first draw up plans to build it as that's the main object.  After it's built deciding what wallpaper or paint to use or flooring to make it nice is the last thing to do.  Then curtains, furniture and wallplates.  

The fact that amps and cables are so often discussed in system tweaking and the speaker/room interaction are secondary or not hardly considered beyond possibly speaker position surprises me.  I don't know how many of you have done an accurate in room response measurement but to those who have or have at least read about room acoustics and modes know that the in room frequency response can be shall we say "horrible" with peaks and dips measuring plus or minus 15 db common.  A room with plus or minus 7 or 8 db would be an unusually good room and far from accurate. Is it not better to spend time and money to tame brightness with the room/speaker where it  can make a large difference rather than interconnects where people are still argueing whether they even make a difference it's so small?  Also it's a rare amplifier that isn't pretty linear, far more than anybody's room, yet  people buy interconnects and amps spending hundreds or thousands of dollars and still not being happy.  

Getting our rooms tweaked the best we can with the speakers we like should be the first priority after the system is assembled.  The biggest audible changes are speaker/room.  I suspect this would make alot of peoples lives easier and systems more musical to them.

[PEB]

As a "speaker guy", I agree.

Too often tenths of dB's are tweaked with electronics, when the room has swings of +/- tens of dB's!

I usually advise a person to work from their ears backwards to the source:

1. Treat the room, if at least a little, and primarily at first reflection points.  
2. Find the best locations for the speakers and yourself (you might be surprised how one location is best for almost all speaker designs).
3. Return to #1, based on location adjustments.
4. Settle on your favorite set of speakers.
5. Partner them with the appropriate amp(s) and speaker cables.  (I call #1 - #5 the "output section" of an audio system.  Don't scrimp here.)
6. Exhale.
7. Now go after all the 0.1dB's you desire.

I also advise a person to not spend any money unless it will make an appreciable improvement.  And then spend what it takes to get that improvement.  Otherwise, start a christmas fund for yourself, until you have enough, and have had time to research.  For example, $100 in room treatment may be more audible than $1000 more in a speaker.

For those that say "it all starts at the phono cartridge", I respectfully remind them of all the pain and suffering they went through until they finally settled in on their choice of "speakers for life".  

[JoshK]

I would probably agree mostly with what you two said.  I would just add that cables should be absolutely the last thing you play with, seriously.  How many audio forums do you see where guys are worrying over cables when they obviously don't have the rest of their system down.   I too have fallen into this trap myself.   You'd be surprised how far $20 monster cables (or pro audio cables, or other cheap cables) will take you when you put your efforts where it counts more.  Its easy to get carried away with silliness.

[warnerwh]

Josh: I think alot of us got caught up the way you say do to the audio magazines and what they said as I too tried that route with wire.  Didn't get too far.  Room treatments started out as an experiement for me a few years ago where I just bought a little acoustic foam, then I bought more and more.  To make a long story short I bought a house a few months ago and have a dedicated room with LEDE and 4 bass traps.  I also judiciously use a quality equalizer now too.  
Wire is absolutely laughable. The way my system sounds now even compared to the other house is amazing.  I'm using Canare XLR's between amp and pre and some Acoustic Research Master series IC's between dvd/cd and pre I paid 20 bucks for new. The Canare was 30 new.  I also listen to a modded Kenwood 7500 tuner regularly which I bought some shielded 15 dollar interconnects, this tuner can sound like a cd player if the recording being broadcast is well done. Speaker wire is silver plated 10 gauge Knukonceptz, the car audio company.  
I'm very disappointed in the audio magazines wasting so much print and bandwidth on wire compared to room acoustics. It's a disservice to the audio public.

[Dan Banquer]

"I'm very disappointed in the audio magazines wasting so much print and bandwidth on wire compared to room acoustics. It's a disservice to the audio public."
    You can't say this enough, and loud enough. Cables are trivia in comparison to loudspeaker room issues.
                d.b.

[nathanm]

The real critical issue everybody seems to avoid is the ink used to imprint data on capacitors.  The new oil-based inks sound much better than cheaper soy-based inks despite requiring longer drying time.  If you haven't addressed the textual ink content on your electronic parts you are really defeating your system's full potential.

[JLM]

PEB,

You're my hero!     You're absolutely correct.  Speakers, being the only transducer left in a disc based system is the biggest factor and room interaction is the second.

Obviously cables, amps, isolation, etc. can all affect the sound, but not to the extent (or dollar for dollar) that speakers or room interaction do.

But most audiophiles are not in a postion to do much with their room situations and amps, players, etc. is more fun to play with than speakers, hence the concentration on the "fun stuff".  Secondly the "fun stuff" has lots of simple yet impressive numbers associated with it that speakers and rooms don't.  

The right speaker/room will simply sound "right" and not draw attention unto itself, so it's easily taken for granted.  Conversely most speaker/room problems are solved by the "fun stuff" crowd with EQ, that at best puts bandaids on the wound.  (Of course an EQ is probably a more domestically acceptable solution to moving furnishings and/or walls.)