many hold to the idea that front end is most important as in "garbage in, garbage out"
I disagree. The most colored component is the speaker. It is the starting point for upgrades after acquiring a competent set of components before it.
Proof? take some very high end speakers and power them with a wide variety of amps and front end components. Even though the sound will change the overall characteristics will remain the same. Then audition a wide variety of speakers and the sound changes drastically. That means you should find speakers you like and build a system around them. If you pair a $100K speaker with a $1000 amp it will be far superior to a $100K amp driving a $1000 speaker (assuming the amp is capable of driving the speakers)
as far as investing in music, unless you are vinyl only, with the proliferation of high quality streaming sources these days music is very cheap
I disagree. The most colored component is the speaker. It is the starting point for upgrades after acquiring a competent set of components before it.
Proof? take some very high end speakers and power them with a wide variety of amps and front end components. Even though the sound will change the overall characteristics will remain the same. Then audition a wide variety of speakers and the sound changes drastically. That means you should find speakers you like and build a system around them. If you pair a $100K speaker with a $1000 amp it will be far superior to a $100K amp driving a $1000 speaker (assuming the amp is capable of driving the speakers)
as far as investing in music, unless you are vinyl only, with the proliferation of high quality streaming sources these days music is very cheap