I am thinking about this on more of a macro level comparing speakers, amp & preamp. I have Wilson speakers and Audio Research reference electronics. I had a couple service events recently where I used my backup B&K preamp and amp. They were each used separately and while the sound was definitely not on the same level as ARC, it still sounded damn good. I had Platinum Audio speakers for 15 years before getting my Wilsons and the move from B&K to ARC was huge. I got these Wilsons about 3 years ago and have loved their sound 100% of the time regardless of source or album. To me this says we should find the speaker that connects to us and just sounds 'right'. I never used dealers or went to demo but am thinking this would be the best approach to find the speakers, bring them home and then build around those.
I recently got a really expensive pair of another brand speaker that received grand praise in Stereophile but simply did not work for me like the much older and less expensive Wilsons.
My advice is that one should invest in speakers before spending thousands on tweaks. Save those thousands after you take your speakers to a new level.