Most Important?

I spend the least amount on speakers and most on source.

Like you rightly said;garbage in ,garbage out

I can't believe that people still believe it is the speakers the most important part of the chain!!!!amazing!!!!

Let me quote Gerard Rejskind editor in chief of UHF magazine; " if the distortion is in the source,can even the best loudspeaker remove it / if the information is missing from the source signal,can even the best loudspeaker putit back / put a badsource through a good pair of loudspeakers,and you will hear with greater than ever clarity how awful the source is"

>>>and that has been my personal experience.Of course you need to know what a truly great source can do..

If course,you must also use common sense,and make sure the components you use are a good match up in everyway,if you can do even that,there is nothing left to say...

As far as room Acoustics are concerned,there are more speakers that are more vulnerables than others to speaker-room interactions..In my experience there are speakers that are superb for nearfield listening[e.g Harbeth]that is almost totally immune to the type of rooms you put them

Jazzkid,

it is quite obvious you need to upgrade your source!!! your amplifications and speaker are more than respectable.

And it looks like you need a PLC for your source and preamp..I would get a dcs Puccini if you have the fund ,or a Naim CDP