Source or speaker

Thanks for your responses, I guess i must be lucky. My speakers are excellent and room interact as well is excellent.
But what's incredible is how my source upgrades (or crossgrades since i went from blackbird to denon 103r) and also adding all that mass to the turntable made such an improvement in performance!!!
I recently heard a bunch of systems avantgardes included and my system trounces on them. The one system I liked was using analog as source and the speakers were verity fidelios. It may have been the combo, shindo was the pre and power amps. Or the gerrard turntable.
I guess the point here is that the whole system needs to be up to the task and synergy too is important!

I thought the same.
Speakers first then amp to match,
then preamp that matches amp.
The source should be as good as possible regardless what is downstream.
I am thinking that an excellent source will work with all systems, speakers amps and pre's is this true????

In my setup my tt, table arm and cartridge is 2 1/2 times as much as the speakers, but with the phono stage its close to three times. My pre and power amps are close to the same price as speakers. Of course it was all found here on gon, but I'm using retail prices.
We are lucky to have this site otherwise I would have half the system.
My intention is to take it to the highest level, but at this point I wouldn't know where to start any changes? I am afraid I'll mess things up.
I probably will get another arm to make it a two arm table, and then play with cartridges. Also preamps and power amps I can swap and see what happens. But I will not sell anything off unless I find the sound better!
Any suggestions????????

Shadorn,
I just thought I should post that I never determined whether hanging the amp with bungee chords made any difference. But the turntable I say no contest.
And the speakers too I prefer suspended, but I never quantified that.
I don't pretend to have discovered anything new or the tweak of the century, but I am hoping some day after comparative testing to say "hey I was on the right track".
As for now I am very happy with what I have and am wondering if I can take it further.

Shardorne:
"If by source you include the quality of the actual recording "
Yes of course quality of the recording is included, but if the component cannot extract all the nuances what good is an excellent recording. The turntable arm cartridge or dac and digital transport must be up to snuff.
I have seen over and over here on gon and in the magazines mention of experienced audiophiles hearing a recording they're familiar with for the first time correctly when sourced from a top grade system. That's why turntables are constantly being upgraded.

All intersting points!
I finally got my system to sound right so it's easy for me to say to others still improving their systems to forget all those tweaks and just sit back and enjoy. But I can easily say that NOW because I am already there.
As for those who have not finished tuning their system to the room and matching components to other components and incorporating tweaks I say those things deserve attention and those tweaks may very well be necessary. I know for certain the tweaks I incorporated into my system matter. Especially those on my turntable and tonearm. Also the speakers being suspended from the ceiling!
How I got my sytem to sound right (to me of course) was mostly out of luck. Sure I did alot of research, but I still could have gone a different direction and that would have changed everything. It's mostly about synergy and room interaction and getting the source right. Also the isolation though I cannot say conclusively the suspension is making a difference in every application that I applied it to like the amplifier, though it wouldn't surprise me if even there it is making a difference. The turntable is a no brainer, the phono stage and preamp too I would be willing to bet are making a difference.
So I still say even though the speakers matter so much, the source has to be right because nothing in the world can correct a bad source! My system improved tremendously when I was tweaking my source. I still can do more but am in no rush.

Shardorne did I step on your toes?

Shardorne,
You----
Your good!
You picked up on those merlins.
Actually I have been hearing good things about your atc's as well.
There are so many brands to choose from and most have a fan base. I could easily have chosen a different brand after reading the fan's praises of those other brands.
But it so happened to be that I stumbled across the merlins by chance before even reading praises from the big loyal fan base merlin has. So it's not all luck, but luck that they came my way.
While the other choices were made based on researching the forum here, which I am grateful that we have except for the few ball busters now and then;~)

Who's this Audiofeil guy?;~)
Well I thought I should elaborate a little on what I had posted as a Thread.
I agree to what oh holy AUDIOFEIL said, but I see that when taking a system to a higher level, after favorite speakers have been discovered as in my case(love my Merlins) that no matter how good the speakers are if the source stinks it will show in playback. I don't think I am alone when I suggest that more money should be devoted to the source.
I am willing to bet and this has been debated earlier and no I am not looking to argue, but I am willing to bet that given two systems of equal value but one in which more is spent on speakers and the other on source that the more expensive source one will be more pleasing.
I am at that state where I am convinced the merlins are magical, and it's more apparent as I improve the source. They did not sound as good before many of the upgrades. In the end I still say speakers should be chosen before amp and preamp. But I believe the source is the reason spectacular systems sound the way that they do.
If there was a shoot out between one excellent source versus one excellent set of speakers, and other brands of lessor value were brought in to replace one at a time the speaker and then the source, which will prove to be a greater contributor to an excellent system the speaker or source?
I am not sure if the outcome would be consistent.
I am just saying that to build a great system one must get the source right, because if it's not nothing will correct it!(obvious) But as we all know everything has to be right the pre and power amps the cables the room bla bla bla. I am sure we are all on the same page. IMHO