And the biggest influence on sound quality is...

Two separate issues are being conflated here. The recording is not a part of the system, but an input to the system, and its quality is a fixed condition beyond the listener's control. The relevant question is what's the strongest determinant WITHIN the playback system/environment.

It’s first the quality of the recording in my experience. Garbage in, garbage out. Then the speakers and then the source - streamer or CD into the DAC. Then preamp, amp and finally cables. The room is a wild card. I have a system that travels between 2 places which are very different. One is a listening room that’s been treated and the other is an open room with no treatment. My best system sounds better in both rooms than the old system I had.

@mark200mph

“My ears. Have fun with it all and the experience”

I would agree most people would leave this out of the discussion. And yes if your hearing is deficient, you may not know it without a hearing test and you can do something about it by getting hearing aids. Also it was mentioned that the recording is something you don’t have control over. I would disagree since many individual albums have different pressings and some have been remastered. Therefore one may able to get a better recording. As far as CD or streaming, yes there are versions that are better recordings than others and many are better resolution as well.

I generally agree with the OP .My mood is tied with the recording quality.

My experience is the quality of the recording is at the top of the list. You can’t make bad engineered recordings sound good regardless of your room or system IMHO.