I believe the most important links are at the beginning and the end of the chain. I agree with anyone who says the room is the most important factor, but I also believe that the media (LP, CD, Tape) is important. A terrible recording can't be helped by changing equipment. During the oil "crisis" of the mid 70's, many LPs were released which sounded horrible. Thery were full of imbedded pops and clicks and the surface noise was very high (Virgin and Atco/Atlantic are two labels which come to mind). We were told that the records were made thinner to conserve resources. I still have some of those records and they sound terrible on any system they are played on. Look at the time and effort some labels spend to make terrific sounding albums. These companies realize, as was mentioned above, garbage in, garbage out.
