Help: Order of importance: Pre, Amp, DAC, speakers

The room.

Sorry--couldn't help that, but I do think the room and the speaker interaction (thus speaker selection is very important) are the most critical things to getting good sound.

Nobody has mentioned power conditioning in this discussion. Although good highend equipment with solid internal power handling does a pretty good job of insulating itself from lousy ac lines, I was shocked how much improvement came with addition of my ps audio p500. The difference was kind of shocking.

With some wonderful exceptions, speakers tend to be the most expensive component to acquire. So starting at this end of the chain makes the most economic sense to me. Ivor is right about GIGO, however even a great source can sound crappy through inexpensive or badly matched speakers. Now that digital/analog front ends are getting more sophisticated (read: expensive) it might prove to be a wash. But, IMO, I'd start with speakers.

IMHO, "order of importance" is determined more by the difficulty of matching/synergy that any component presents than where it stands in the chain. Because of that I consider the speaker selection is most important. Speakers not only present the greatest variations in sound but also present the greatest room/set up challenge. Nothing is easy for the neophyte, but with some research about speakers and a subsequent commitment to obtaining the 'sound' that they are capable of producing is easier than trying to back speakers into an established electronics chain. FWIW.