Poll: Most impactful component

Given all the technological advances over the years, audiophiles have very different perspectives on equipment.

This likely reopens an age old debate, but which component has the most potential to improve a stereo system? Or can it?

If you could upgrade one component to take your system to the next level which one would get the investment? Speakers? DAC? Pre? Source?

Or is this the holy grail that no one can achieve?

tee_dee05-19-2023 2:24am

headphonedreams Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 522 posts 05-20-2023 at 10:10am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete As many others have said speakers are probably the part that can change the sound the most. Still, an unbalanced system can sound worse than a slightly cheaper but well-balanced system. And changing just one component in a balanced system to another that is much better and maybe much more expensive will make the system unbalanced. For example, a system with $100k speakers and a $1k amp might sound a lot worse than a system with $10k speakers and $10k amp. If you have a well-balanced system and suddenly get a lot of extra budget to improve it it is probably best to replace many parts at once.