Next Biggest Improvement after Speakers ?

It depends what you are trying to accomplish. There have been many good comments made so far.

Everything in the system is important, but IMO speakers are the least important. All they do is reproduce what comes to them. They do not create signal! They will not add back into the music what was lost coming down the line.

The most important thing in a system is the room. Nothing will sound good in a bad room. It doesn't matter how good the system is if the room keeps it from being able to reproduce music. Make sure the room is good.

Second most important thing is the source. CD, SACD, Vinyl, cassette, 8-track or tuner. If the equipment with which you procure the music doesn't get it off of the source it is lost throughout the chain. Get the best CDP, or Cartridge you can justify and get the most from the source!!!

Third, follow the signal to the speakers. Cartridge - arm - TT - cable - phono stage - cable - pre-amp - cable - amp - speaker cable - speakers.

Every piece will effect the signal. Buy pieces that cause the least detrimental effect on the signal. Make sure as much of the signal taken from the source arrives at the speakers as possible. If a poor signal arrives at the speakers they will reproduce junk, if a good signal arrives they will sound good.

Speakers are important, but they are the least important thing in the room. Get good speakers, but make sure the equipment upstream is worthy of them.

Aroc, I don't know that we disagree a lot. I would not put a shelter 901 or a Lyra Titan on a Dual CS 505, but I also would not put a Sumiko Pearl on a Walker Procenium Turntable.

At the same time the better cartridge will sound better than a lesser cartridge on any given TT. The cartridges ability to retrieve the signal is extremely dependant on the arm and table doing their job correctly. So a better cartridge is always more important to the ultimate signal that arrives at the speakers. I'm not sure if there are any right answers either, since there is a lot more opinion and a lot less fact involved in this hobby.

Is it safe to say that many of the people posting here think that speakers are the most likely to have a detrimental effect on the sound so they are more important!?!

Does that mean speaker designs are the most flawed of all the chain?

Just because you don't get sound out of an amp, preamp or cable doesn't make them less important than speakers.

I think it was Nrchy that said all things being equal speakers are the least important. That makes a lot more sense than saying speakers are the most important because they are not as well made or designed. BUT can we really trust an Nrchist?