To the best of my knowledge, the "primacy" question was first launched in this country by Consumers Union, who opined back in the 1960s that the two transducers in a system (cartridge and speakers), being inherently most error-prone, made the biggest differences in the sound; therefore, the largest portion of your audio budget should be spent on them. (Of course, these are the same people who won't admit that either amplifiers or CD players sound different, so no wonder!) The approximate recommendations I remember were 50% on speakers, 20% on cartridge, and 30% on everything else.
Then along came Ivor Tiefenbrun in the mid-'70s to announce that the 'umble turntablehitherto almost completely overlooked as a candidate for primacyhad to be considered first. After all, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that anything lost at the very front end can never be retrieved by the loudspeakers, nor that distortions created by the phono front end will be only amplified faithfully thereafter
So says Larry Archibald in the 5/98 Stereophile
Then along came Ivor Tiefenbrun in the mid-'70s to announce that the 'umble turntablehitherto almost completely overlooked as a candidate for primacyhad to be considered first. After all, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that anything lost at the very front end can never be retrieved by the loudspeakers, nor that distortions created by the phono front end will be only amplified faithfully thereafter
So says Larry Archibald in the 5/98 Stereophile