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

Sorry, I am old and can't half see anymore and I agree that power conditioning is just one factor. It is really hard to identify any one thing as most important. To me, it is a question of system matching that really holds the key ; this is a very elusive quest and I think the one that most of us are attemting to attain

source, preamp, speakers, amp are equally important but old addage, garbage in garbage out is true.

IMO the components that have the most effect on sound are (in order)

Speakers, amp, pre, source/DAC (these are the same thing, really).

Just my 2 cents. I purchased the best speaker I could afford 25 years (Kef 104 /2's ago and drove them with an Onkyo TX4500 reciever at the time. I then systematically upgraded the electronics with moderatly priced seperate componenents. Each step made the speakers sound better and better. Ultimately, I had a set of target price points in mind and a performance level that I wanted. So, using the garbage in... garbage out theory...aka build from the source upwards... I purchased in order a Levenson 31 transport, then a Sonic Frontiers DAC, then an Audio Research LS 15 Pre and finally a Classe delta 2200 Amp. Each step gave new life to the speakers. Now I am at the stage where my speakers and DAC are the limiting factors. (Well... really its the budget...but ). So, My advice would be... Identify a goal and come up with a flexible plan that gets you there in the time frame you are comfortable with.

Tcatman, I agree with you 100%....