What's most important?

I would have to go with: 1. Pre-amp (or integrated amp, heart's and guts in one unit) 2. Source-Loudspeakers and 3. Amp (separates). On room acoustics, i would have to agree, it is the most important "tweak". And "tweak" no matter how important, wont "make or brake" the great set-up. It will just "help-out". On the cables, the most important cables are Interconnects between Pre-amp and Amp (separate) 2. in between source and Pre and 3. Speaker cables! I posted similar Q. before and interesting outcome was: 70% speakers were most important, than the source....and Pre-amp was distant 3rd...i am surprised that most audio entusiast chose the wrong answer?

Hi Robert; I've got to go with you on this one (at least for 1st place). If the speaker room interface doesn't work, what's in the rest of the system won't matter. I learned this the hard way-- had Vand. 2Ces (good sized speaker) in a 12 X 14 room, and never could play them at more than low to low-moderate level or they would easily "overload" the room. We remodeled some time later and then I had a 14 X 22 room-- huge improvement, and I now have Vand. 3Asigs in this room. Now the speaker room interface is very good. In my smaller room, I would have been MUCH better off with a good quality small speaker. Beyond this (and sorry for the cliche) "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link", and any one poor component can "screw up" an otherwise good system. That said, I have: 1. put most of my money into excellent source components, 2. next most into amp-preamp combination, and 3. speakers, 4. wires including ded. AC system with ded. ground (actually if I include power cords with other wires, I have more money in wire than speakers). Cheers. Craig.

I appreciate your views, Eldragon, but I still don't see how the preamp (or integrated amp) can be MORE important than the proper SPEAKER/ROOM INTERFACE. And please notice that I did not say that the SPEAKERS are MORE important than the preamp, but that the INTERACTION between the room and speakers is MORE important. In my friends system described above (Vandersteen, Bryston, Resolution)I used a RTA to help figure out what was going on. He had 10dB rise from about 100Hz to 250Hz, and a 8dB suckout from about 65Hz down to 50Hz (from the flexing of his wood floors, we presume) and allot of other problems through the mid and high frequencies. When we moved the speakers along the long wall, that helped, but nothing changed from the upper bass down. He could never understand what was going on, and tried different amps, source components, and wires. And while each change produced a shift in the spectral balance of the system, nothing really helped to make the system more enjoyable, at least according to him. And after looking at the in-room frequency response plot, I can understand why. He was fighting a problem that could not be solved unless he got new speakers, or a new room. With the Dunlavys we were able to get nearly flat response from about 50Hz to above 10Khz with only a minimum ammount of acoustic treatments. Are the Vandersteens *bad* speakers? Of course not. They were simply the WRONG speaker for this room. And no preamp I know of (besides one that uses digital correction) can compensate for really bad frequency response problems. This is why I still contend that the SPEAKER/ROOM INTERFACE is most important, and by that I mean selecting the right speaker for the proposed listening room, setting it up properly, and applying acoustic treatments if needed. Until my buddies came over last night, I thought this was common knowledge, but boy was I wrong. And please try to remember, I'm not saying that SPEAKERS are MORE important than any other component. I'm simply saying that the SPEAKER/ROOM INTERFACE (as I've defined it in the above posts) is more important than just about anything else, at least in my experience....Robert K.

......I should have also noted that I use 5 ASC tube traps to facilitate speaker/room interaction-- AND I have 3 ASC panel traps on order to deal with side wall reflections. Cheers. Craig

What most important?Everything in a system is important, and that includes your own ears, of course!A system is working in an environment, in which the system in itself, is an integrated part.Where does additional efforts pay divident the most? Of course, one can make statistical investigations, to find out e.g., that room treatment had the best influence by , say 60% of the systems, evaluated by their owners, but that dosen´t nessecerly help you, to make good desicions.I will say that one important thing, among others is one´s ability to analyse problems and strengts in the system. With that, you probably don´t simply trow gear out, and replace it with other gear, in hope of an improvment.Instead, you work towards an end, and if you don´t know how to get further improvments,you consult others, who hopefully knows.Having had this interest,for about 40 years now, and having built many loudspeakers, amplifiers, and done a lot of tweaking,I can say that there is no shortcuts, everything in a system has importance, but many audiophiles have insufficient knowledge about acoustics, electronics, physics,so they are often searching in wain, for improvments.I don´t blame them. And I don´t state that I know enough,I don´t. But with better knowledge one is more resistent to marketing hype, and with experiences one can make more intelligent guesses,e.g. it may be better to improve the power supply of the preamplifier, than to buy new cables.Thus, if it is a single thing that IS most important, I will say knowledge!