Component isolation

We hear electricity not original sound, a helpless imitation of reality. Don't fool yourself. Well, that was wrong - fool yourself and keep it that way. But Michael is right, you some guys don't get it. Passing signal causes vibrations that change it, that's the problem. Dealing with external vibrations is easy by comparison.

Without going into the stratosphere, I always do power amps or integrated amp first, either tube or transistor - no difference. 
That's, after turntable and speakers. Phono stage first will get you nowhere, so will the dac. Preamp maybe but I don't see why start there. Power cords on the amps are also my first move regarding this part of system assembling. Power amps by definition are bad, better start there.

I can give an example of how to throw the system off the balance while using exactly the same components in the chain, in this case interconnect cables.
I usually run the signal as follows: from Goldring 1042 cartridge thru Nottingham arm's wiring harness to Acoustech phono stage thru Tchernov Reference MK II cable to Nakamichi 682 ZX deck thru Purist Audio Neptune cables to Redgum RGi120 integrated thru Purist Colossus fluid speaker cables to Michael Green Audio Rev80 speakers. 
If I put Purist Neptune cables between phono and deck, and put Tchernov cables between deck and amp I create out of tune sound which is while still pretty good is much worse than the other way around. Whatever other or additional explanations might be, two things come to mind - first, I interrupt the Purist chain, and second I believe Nottingham's wire and Tchernov wire somehow work better together, so in fact I might do double interruption. When not interrupted those two segments - Nottingham/Tchernov and Purist/Purist work fine. I also have Purist Dominus RevB power cord on the integrated and Purist Aquila on the PS Audio regenerator everything is plugged in.

Well, I don't think the man is asking about this kind of extreme tuning that Michael is talking about. I certainly wouldn't tune for every recording just as I don't adjust VTA for every record but fine tuning the complete system to achieve the best possible compromise is worth the effort and a true audiophile endeavor. But first the system must be complete, both active and passive components. In a sense, there are no passive components, cables and power cords are also very active. How to achieve the system completeness ? Well, I don't have an answer, you got to experiment, to listen and to have audiophile instinct. System is complete when if you insert any new components in it, as good as it might be by itself, the sound you get is off the balance and out of tune, in other words - worse overall even if it might be better in certain aspects. 

Disregard what Elizabeth said. Each individual component may need very different isolation devices.
Are you asking because you don't want to spend on the devices for all your components or simply curious ?