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

Also it doesn’t matter if your source ends up being multiples in price of your speakers. You don’t have to buy a top line speaker to match, as often the top speaker model has a half dozen drivers and is designed for a cavernous listening space and requires very high wattage amps, which if not setup carefully can reduce it's performance to below that of the middle tier models (which are much cheaper).

@agisthos +1 both posts.  I would add room design/treatments to your list as well, maybe first on the list.

Speakers only matter up to a certain price point if you understand room acoustics, setup and the art of integrating subs.

Thereafter, all the flagship nuance, high end magic, etc is created by the front end electronics.

+1 to thinking of Systems rather than individual components.

Some people need to think of speakers first. If filling a room with sound at high levels is important, perhaps speakers have to be the first consideration

On the other hand, speakers can’t reproduce what’s not there in the first place. Worse, high resolution speakers can reveal any sonic shortcomings in the source. People that prefer vocal and acoustic music for which tonal quality and being able to hear environment cues might be better suited to finding source components that can better convey these aspects of music that are difficult to reproduce well.

What @deep_333 said. +100

I go STRAIGHT from the recorded material I'm interested to listen to, then the rest of components.

I’ve always been in the source first camp.  

N

I prefer to advise edges first (speakers and source). But if I had to pick just one it would be speakers first - the last transducer actually creates the sound. Source is important, but if you can't reproduce what the source can provide then what's the point?

The true source has always been the recording, not necessarily what it's being played on, even though that does matter but is secondary to the recording itself.

My 60 years experience dictates recording and speakers. Getting the room/speaker interface right will yield the best sound with the smallest investment.

GIGO

@tweak1 true! But…the speakers and the amp are the biggest contributors to the final presentation (let’s assume room acoustics are decent here) and you will never know what your speakers are capable of without the best possible amplifier driving them.

I’ve been listening to CDs played on a 15 year old $49 DVD player while waiting for a dac to arrive, and if it wasn’t for my amp and speakers it wouldn’t sound as good as it does!

@br3098 +1

Yes, speakers matter the most!