what is more important ?

A few weekends ago, I went to someones house who purchased a power amplifier from me, as I have been selling off much of my collection, locally. The purpose of my visit was to help him to fine tune his system. I brought with me some of my cds that I know very well, and trust them, to tweak a system. Of these, I played a few test tracks from the Stereophile Test CD, # 3. What amazed this individual the most, and always find it an amazing demo, was the " localization tracks ", in which the voice and footsteps were " furthest from the stage ", " most front left of stage, most front right of the stage ", center of the stage, etc., and the walking to and from the microphone. I have always known, that the microphone placement, in, and on the recordings, were substantial, in how we interpret things such as " imaging ", " soundstaging ", " depth ", etc. Also, the mixing consoles, used to create echo, delay, etc. My point I am trying to make here, is, in order to determine what the most significant " piece " of a system is, or, as a " whole ", one needs to have a reference to go by, to help one to help the listener to determine what he or she likes, wants, and expects, out of a system. Without this, it is all a merry go round. I helped this individual out, and used, Stevie Ray Vaughn's " Tin Pan Alley " from "Couldn't Stand The Weather ", as a reference of mine, because it is a studio recording, done live, in a single take, without overdubs, or using too much trickery, and gives a good account of a simple, stellar performance of just a few amazing musicians, which makes listening, so very easy to follow. As a recording, it lacks nothing, and I have used it throughout my career ( I am not alone ), in putting systems together for people whom I worked with as clients. Our systems, every piece of them, every component, every wire, is to reproduce the " RECORDINGS ", and I feel, this is the first, and foremost, piece of the puzzle, and with this, everything else, will fall in place....or not. Sorry for my rant, but I have heard " stellar " gear, fall apart on this single track, and on some " mediocre " equipment, shine. Enjoy ! MrD.

Speakers, room, and driving amplifier ( s ). At the same time, I can also say : Transport, digital cable, dac, ic, amp, speaker and room. This one track makes everything very obvious. A must have for everyone ( i posted this on the music thread quite a while ago ).

Speakers, and assuming enough power to drive them it's not even close that speakers matter the most.

Amp/Source

Room (that said, you have what you have to work with)