Spending on dac vs amp

Thank you all for the feedback. If I summarize some of the key points, this is what I heard:

- spend the most on the analog components and start with speakers. ($3k)
- work from the speakers down and get a good amp as these should they with me for a while ( up to $2.5k)
- in terms of dac, paying more makes a difference but the pace of innovation is so high that it probably doesn't justify spending too much (no more than $1.5k)
- keep the remainder for good quality speaker cables, psu, and analog interconnection, don't worry about digital interconnects. ( up to $1k)

In addition $8k seems to be more than enough to build a great system.

However ultimately, it is all based on experience ( warm vs transparent, ...) Ratios are there to be changed and challenged. No one size fits all.

Fair summary?

:) tough to trust reviewers, eg. I must say when I hear people comment on how audio furniture creates a more transparent, 3d sound, I'm getting very skeptical too.

Cmalak, thank you for the feedback. I shopped quite a bit fir my speakers and ended up buying the spendors s8e used on this site. I also bought an LCD integrated used. Now trying to complement my system with dac, cables, other...