The most important piece in a stereo system???

Preamp! Don't skimp on it. I wouldn't have thought it before I got into this hobby, but my preamp upgrades have offered the most obvious improvements in sound (Arcam Alpha to Bryston BP20 to Sonic Frontiers Line 3). To answer those who voted for front-end, I believe the 'garbage in garbage out' arguement but I've found the difference between a good $1000 player and a good $6000 player more subtle than such a price difference for other components. As for speakes, I've found speaker enhancements offer the biggest change in the character of the sound but not necessarily the quality - excellent speakers with crap electronics will merely show how bad the electronics are. My friend had B&K electronics drive a pair of Nautilus 804s and the sound was so harsh I was keen to leave the room. Overall, I've found every component matters - I've found my money best spent on a system with roughly equal expenditure on all components and cabling accounting for no less than 20% of overall system (System is YBA CD1a, SF Line 3, Blue Circle BC2s, Audio Physic VirgoII, SPM Ref interconnects and FIM Gold Speaker Cable).

If I had to pick the single most important component I would say the preamp. Why? Because this unit is responsible for taking a very small signal that is passed to it from your source and accurately conveying this information to the amplifier. The preamp also adds gain to the signal before feeding it to the power amplifier so any inperfections at this stage will get multiplied by the amplifier no matter how accurate it is.

My friend who is an engineer would say that the component closest to the source is the most important. So if you listen to CD's than the transport/DAC is the most important. I believe that you can get good quality CD players for reasonable prices and that buying a more expensive CD player does not make that much more of a difference. There are diminishing marginal returns with CD players that increase exponentially with price. Therefore, I don't recommend investing too much money on this component relative to the whole system. My friend would disagree.

An audio dealer in my area would say that the source is what's closest to your ears. That would be the speakers. They are important so its hard for me to argue against this.

I would suggest not focusing on what is the most important component as this argument really does not work well in building a synergistic system.

For instance, take my previous argument about the preamp. If the preamp excels at accuracy and linearity, but the amplifier does not then the system will not reach its potential. If your source ,say CD player,has a bad preamp section then we have a problem again.

First, decide what room you what to build your system in and make sure the room does not have any major flaws. Next, compute a budget for the entire system and audition different equipment that you are interested in. My personal recommendation is to consider Vacuum tubes. They have a musically involving sound. This is especially true with SET amplifiers.

If you decide to go with tube equipment make sure to go with a tube pre and power amp. You can run into impedance mismatch problems with a SS amp and Tube pre or vice versa.



Hope this helps

Based on my experience, I have to say that the speakers, in combination with the room, are far more important than any other component. I have owned a number of speakers over the past 15 years or so and have found each to have individual sound characteristics (although sometimes the differences have been fairly small). Minor changes in positioning of the speakers and/or listening chair can also greatly affect sound quality in my experience. Phono cartridges would be next in line after speakers.
Have also owned a number of amps, preamps,and/or receivers, (ranging from Classe separates that cost about $3k to a $100 Pioneer SX 205 receiver) and several different cables and have never been able to detect ANY audible difference amoung these components.

Everyone that voted speakers go to the front of the class no better yet you are exempt from the final exam AND as well you all get A+++ as your final grade. And the rest of you ask WHY. Because if have a ear for the speakers you are sure to get the rest right. Explaination. There are some great engineered tube amps. out there , and a few good ss amps (hard to go wrong) but very few speakers worth the asking price(easy to go wrong)[disgruntle all you want its true!] What i hope is to find a really dynamic Ribbon Hybred speaker priced at a reasonably $2K to $3K range.(maybe VMPS?) I have lost ALL faith in the conventional cone speaker system. It seems since the 70's the one major change in cone speakers is the big new prices. Same old boxes just new names. I am amazed how few speaker labs have not caught on to the wonders of the ribbon. I get the hunch this will be the longest running thread on audiogon as well as most posts. Mr.Ultrakaz has the best understanding of audio , the percentage breakdown of components importance is pretty much on the mark. However since speaker design is so far behind in technology as compared to the wonders of amp tech, one must make his amp selection really count so as to help bring out the best in the speaker. Again speaker is most important BUT so few are worth the asking price. As for my music listening it's the 3 little known(don't advertise) french labs that have caught my eye:Jadis, Audio Aero, Kora. There are 2 threads asking about ribbons and no one is responding...?..(Raven and other ribbons by Mrgigi on 2-16-020.) Welp, guess its time to saddle up an' ride on out this here town.