@michaeljbrown
I am of the speaker-first persuasion. But really for me, the most important thing is speaker/amp interaction. I'm going through it right now with the TAD E-1s. They sound utterly amazing with some amplification but just OK with others. My problem is that the utterly amazing combo is waaay outside my budget, and that's just for the amp. So be aware that the pairing of speaker and amp/pre or integrated will make or break how the system sounds.
I am of the speaker-first persuasion. But really for me, the most important thing is speaker/amp interaction. I'm going through it right now with the TAD E-1s. They sound utterly amazing with some amplification but just OK with others. My problem is that the utterly amazing combo is waaay outside my budget, and that's just for the amp. So be aware that the pairing of speaker and amp/pre or integrated will make or break how the system sounds.