Poll: Most impactful component

By far the most impactful component and the best money I have spent on my system is my Legacy Audio Wavelet, pre-amp, electronic X-over, DAC, speaker/room correction. I wish I could afford to upgrade it to the Wavelet II.

Another +vote for Cables/Cords.

Happy Listening!

Speakers 1st. Amp 2nd

Speakers 1st. Amp 2nd

Speakers, easily.

I think it’s fair to say most people consider speakers to be the single most important link in a system, I won’t disagree with that assessment.  Over the past year or two I have upgraded nearly every component in my system and the one that made the single biggest improvement excluding speakers was the phono cartridge.  Obviously this only applies to people who play vinyl.

Really great discussion and diversity in views. Sadly this really adds to my confusion. I can't decide! I'm fairly new to the hobby. All this information is great.

This hobby is very personal. Then why do we rely on equipment reviews and base our buying decisions on other's opinions? Every system is different. It must take obsessive iterations in YOUR room and YOUR system to answer this question. That's the lesson I've learned so far. Thanks.

My ears are only 51 years old but I can only hear to 13k. My 35yo wife can’t stand the super tweeters I added to our 2 way Altec horn system because she can hear 19k. I have a toggle switch that takes the tweeters out of the system when she listens with me. It’s sucks to have tweeters that you can’t hear. They do seem to add air though. Now I wear earplugs while mowing and riding my Harley to preserve what I have….

This is great thread!  My answer--I have no idea.  

How great is Roxy's metaphorical assessment of the system? 

Speakers = Body & Voice

Amplifier = Heart

Pre = Soul

I would add that Source = Blood 

For years I fought the notion that the preamp was super important.  Then I got a legitimate phono preamp (Manley Chinook--still own it despite lots of swapping around).  That made me realize that if a phono preamp could make that big of a difference, how about the preamp itself?   That was eye opening. 

Maybe I should be asking myself, What component is the one to skimp on, if you had to? 

Oh I forgot room treatment.  I bought approx 100 Auralex tiles and 24 bass traps. Honestly this did more than any component.  Actually it did more than all of my components.  I know there is still some room correction to gain and I only spent about 1500 but it made a GIANT difference in my room

It was the Preamp for me. I had a solid system and when I upgraded preamps it was staggering. I had spent about 10k on speakers and 10k on a turntable and truthfully only had midfi amplification so I had to choose. I flipped a coin and upgraded the preamp and was blown away. 

Fuses.

I've always thought this was not a fair question as a wonderfully fulfilling system is the sum of its parts so it usually boils down to that last piece that completed the fulfillment puzzle be it a cable, an amp, a speaker, etc. 

All the best,
Nonoise

To be meanful, I think you should reframe your question to what component(s) you have changed so far make(s) most impactful improvement, instead of what would you predict it to be. In my case, the first time I felt the system had an dramatic improvement is after changing the amplifier to Parasound A23 and NC 2125 v2. The bass is weightier and more nimble. The second experience I had is after changing my source from laptop/Mac to a streamer (ifi ZS), the top is more open, more airy, all range of sound has more clarity, background is quieter, etc.  The third improvement is resulted from a $5 gadget, i.e., drum stopper gel silicon. I double stack them and place on each corner of bookshelfs.  The bass is more solid and a bit more "bouncy".

1- The source material, of course.

2- The speakers and room (the two are inseparable).

Cables and risers….. 😂Friday night laugh 

Cheers

Right now my source is the weakest component. But my room is not great either.

Source is usually easier to fix, so work on both... 😎

Duh, speaker, of course. Everything in the chain matters. But speakers vary significantly more than any other link in the chain(the cartridge is second in an analog system) so their choice gives many more variations to find sound you like and conversely it is by far the link in the chain that can produce sound you don't like and there are probably many more speakers whose voice you don't like than you do like.

Right now my source is the weakest component. But my room is not great either.

My room. Whilst I'm grateful ful I have a dedicated room, I know it is too small for what I want to achieve, so I have to live with compromise despite room treatments

Of surprise to me, power amp has consistently been the biggest difference maker in my journey.  

The answer depends on the system.

My system is balanced and optimized, with all components compatible and at the same level. So, there is only one answer, upgrade my speakers from Sonus Faber Amati traditional to Sonus Faber Lillium. While the Lillium are a bit big for my relatively large space and would cause bass loading at high volumes… I don’t listen at high volumes. So this would make a big difference. Other component upgrades not so much. 

They all might in any given case.  It takes an entire system to make music…..source, amp, and speakers.  The rest is secondary. 

I agree with Roxy54 in the Preamp being the Soul....   my most dramatic upgrades have been preamps .  A good pre is crucial to great sound.   Yes there are some DACs that function as a preamp , some very good ones , but I really think there is no substitute for a great preamp.  

I owned a Zesto Leto preamp ,  amazing piece of gear. I had it for a year and it killed me to sell it .  Putting it in the chain felt like I upgraded my whole system.

 I am having a DHT preamp built,  I sold the Zesto to fund it and am now using a 30 year old SFL-1  temporarily and it was a major downgrade .   Still sounds good but that Zesto was revelatory.   

Let's say you have your speaker / room interaction and placement ironed out , the Preamp is the most impactful "component" .    Don't believe me?  Insert a world class preamp into just about any system and you may be in for a shock.   

Loudspeakers 

Speakers + Cables

Oh please it's cables! (Sarcasm) 

Speakers

@tee_dee  - Cables, without a doubt

I sent my nephew interconnect cables and a speaker cables

• he could not believe the transformation of his very entry level system
• he now has an idea what the audiophile hobby is all about

My "modest" system (MSRP Around $20k) outperforms systems costing many times more thanks to the excellent cables I have installed

I also have a mini System which with the right cables sound pretty amazing

But you have to know about the science behind good cables in order to make the right choices - just like selecting a new components

I regard my cables as the most important component in my system

Regards - Steve

Agreed....the "weakest link" theory still applies, and the speakers are what interacts with the room and the amplifier, so I’d still focus on speakers with the understanding that you still need to build the system around them. The system will never be great until that weakest link is pretty good, and synergizes well with everything else.

@roxy54

it is all important of course, after all it is a chain, so the ’weak link’ logic applies

and folks who say it is the source do have a point, the signal starts there, once purity is lost, it is never recovered

but my thinking is, as knowledgeable, experienced audiophiles, we should know how to get the source purity to a very high level, then the speakers (assumed to driven properly by amplification) are the actual ’musical instrument’ that electromechanically transduces the electrical signal to physical music that we hear... so that (and how the speakers couple to the listening room) is, to me, the most important/critical aspect for each of us to get right, and in most cases, the most difficult

@jjss49 

Reading what you wrote made me reconsider, because I realized that I have changed speakers 20 times over the years before settling in long term, and therefore I voted with my wallet, and over the years speakers were apparently the most critical link.

with everything right in the chain, it is the speaker that matters the most (along with room of course)

Speakers are the voice of the system, amplifier is the heart and the pre is the soul, so I will give it the most importance, because in my experience over the years, an otherwise good system can be ruined by a poor pre. That said, speakers are also greatly important, especially for preserving coherency and dynamics.

I would upgrade my 68 year old hearing. No tinnitus and being able to hear frequencies over 15 Khz.