I have found that no component is 'more important' than the others. Great amplification with poor speakers sounds at least as bad as poor amplification with great speakers. I do agree that running a lesser cdp will sound relatively poor with Thiels. You say all your upgrades have been fairly recent, so I do not see the problem with starting with the speakers. Although I don’t believe in a component importance hierarchy, I have found that variance between speakers is a little greater than the variance between other components (n/a for turntables). What if you later found that you really dig the Thiels but your electronics were all wrong for them? Definitely get a new cdp or dac, though. I like the Linn Ikemi. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up. Haven’t heard them but I hear great things about Meridian 508.24, Wadia 830, Mistral, and Cary. Have fun
Order of importance
I recently upgraded my system to Thiel 2.2, CJ MF2200 and CJ PFR. I went back to using my old Denon 1520 CD player from a new DVD. I was told by a salesman that the order of importance in a system is 1)speakers, 2)source, 3)preamp, 4)amp. Therefore, I was told to buy a new CD or use the Denon as a transport and get a DA converter. Any thoughts on this and what DAC to consider?