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A stupid question for which there's no sensible answer.

I know, I know. At least I've labeled it properly.

Here goes: of the following elements of a system, how would you rank their influence on the sound? In other words, generally, which would someone want to upgrade or prioritize, and in what order,  if all of the following pieces were inferior to an amp/preamp and speakers they were happy with? Power cables, connector cables. speaker cables. streaming source, music source, dac (I vote for this one as #1), room treatment, speaker placement, type of chair, earwax quotient, what you ate for lunch, etc.

I hereby give my permission for everyone to tell me this is an idiotic question since the real answer is: it depends. (But I did put a "generally" in there somewhere). Anyway, I prefer that we debate this based on what we've experienced when we've tinkered. So I guess I'm really interested in anecdotes.

m669326

Showing 1 response by yyzsantabarbara

yyzsantabarbara
5,122 posts
 
The room. A smaller room is likely harder to get right than a big room. I have big speakers in a small room and it sounds perfect, but there is a bit of acoustic treatment and DSP magic behind that.

A million dollar system or a $1000 system likely both will sound bad in my room unless the room was taken care of with treatments, both hardware and software based.

Another effect solution is the RAAL SR1a headphone (or ear speakers). Incredible sound and listening experience. Nothing like traditional headphones.
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