Do you belong more to souce first or to speakers first school of thought ?

To me, the source is somewhat discrete relative to the rest of the system. A crappy source will sound crappy with whatever follows. However, the speaker/amplifier relationship is much more symbiotic, as several here have said. I believe somebody mentioned matching the speaker and the room but I haven’t seen anyone yet mention the relationship between the type of music listened to and the speaker. Sure a good speaker should sound good with most music but not every speaker can handle the power to fill a large room to believable levels with hard rock music, as one example. Also, speakers can alter tone as not every speaker projects a flat frequency response so some offer a presentation that seems to add a bit of warmth while others can be perceived as providing greater detail. In addition, loud is not enough for some types of music or for some listeners where there needs to be a feeling of weight and power behind the sound, as it is in real life. Conversely, not every speaker sounds good, or realistic, at low volumes. Having subs, or not, can also make a big difference.

All that said, I would start by finding the right speakers for my room, music, and listening preferences, then match an amplifier that can drive them convincingly, and finally work on improving source components. I view the preamp as sort of between the amplification/speaker side of things and the source, as in my experience the right preamp for a system can make it sound wonderful while the wrong preamp can be similar to ruining your favorite dish by adding the wrong spices or flavorings.

Interesting responses here, and probably no one correct answer for all situations. Today’s digital front end equipment has been changing and improving rapidly compared to speaker and amplifier technology. Just look at the number of new digital front-end products that manufacturers have released in the past few years and claim to improve on their predecessors.  Also, it is much easier to try different front end components than to cycle 100-pound (or more) speakers and amplifiers in and out of a listening room. However, as many here have said, getting both the front end and the amplification/speaker right is important, as is having a system that is complimentary to the other components, the room, and the listener’s music and sonic preferences. This is really a chicken and egg type question where it is one or the other until the listener achieves a balance that results in their satisfaction.

I look at speakers as the macro part of my system while the source/front end I consider to be micro. I found it much harder to find speakers that worked for me sonically, plus large heavy speakers are much harder to move around than front end equipment, when using the buy and try approach .

Once I found speakers that ticked my boxes sonically, and partnered appropriate amplifiers to drive them, the (heaviest to lift) macro portion of my sound was complete. Most here have at least adequate source components so it is not a matter of having great speakers and sucky source components. Once the source is mostly ok, upgrades to the source IME tend to be micro, or smaller incremental gains. In addition, digital source gear has experienced noticeable improvements almost annually over the past 5-10 years so my source has been the least stable part of my system, as I have upgraded DACs, servers, added a DDC, etc., and the more stable part of my system (amplifiers/speakers) seems to have kept up.