Words From the Wise

Amp,Pre-amp,source,speakers(sized to room). Anyone who tells you otherwise is simply deluded by his favorite component. The amp is the "heart" of your system, period.

IMHO it's as follows:
1) The room.. it makes or breaks the system
2) The room..it makes or breaks the system
3) Listen for yourself before buying
4) The latest itineration is necessarily the greatest.
5) Price doesn't necessarily determine how good the piece is.
6) Get the front end right and your'e on your way.
7) Your system is only as good as its weakest link.
8) LIsten to ALL types of music before buying
9) Listen to a recording of a piano before buying
10) Buying used isn't always a bad idea..Thanks A'gon!
11) Experiment with placement of speakers and equipment in the room

12) Maybe this should be 1st...WAF is VERY IMPORTANT!! Or so my husband
says..:0)

I thought of more but I believe is the MAIN cause for upgrading too much and being a heartache to us sometimes and yes it does happen!!!SPEAKER PLACEMENT!!!!!People dont play with their speakers enough!!! Moving them twice and one of the moves was for grandmas stay that week doesnt count!! I try at least once a week now(but ive been doing it for years)to move them in out toe them a little just to play with the imaging and front back to control my low end and placement.Think of the placement of your speakers as a control or controls like presence,bass, treble,imaging and midrange. You are able to change all of these things with only moving a speaker! the first piece to play with is your final piece in your rig the speakers.Alright thats my rant and goodluck to us all God knows we need it!

Get a real sense of what you are striving for;high end 2 channel,casual listening,surround sound,tube or solid state;but decide which way you want to proceed and get the speakers you can build around with proper system matching of components.
Also you need to understand the acoustics of your listening enviroment and be able to correct any areas that color or degrade the sound you are striving to obtain.
Speaker cabling and interconnects is just as important as well.
Lastly use this site to put your system together saving big $$$ and also ask questions in the proper forums when you have to.

i'm not sure about the "wise" part, but herewith are my words:
1. form should follow function--equipment should serve your real priorities. thus, if you're going to use your system mainly to listen to NPR, it probably doesn't make sense to invest in a megabuck, multichannel home theater.
2. price is an extremely imperfect indicator of quality. any number of manufacturers are making modestly-priced gear which sounds just as good or better as their more expensive, more hyped competitors'.
3. that said, you cannot go wrong buying the best quality you can afford. once you've acquired a great-sounding piece, you'll never regret not buying something inferior. ergo, you're much better off spending your current budget on a few high-quality pieces and augmenting later.
4. cables and interconnects are mostly snake oil; the audible differences between well-made such products are generally not cost-effective. room treatment and placement, however, is critical.
5. unlike video technology, which has evolved extremely quickly, audio technolgy (at least the two channel type) evolves at a much more glacial pace--the components being produced today don't necessarily sound significantly better than stuff produced ten years ago. consequently, the used market offers you the opportunity to put together a truly high-end system at a fraction of the cost of new gear.
6. multi-channel, blueray, ipods, lifestyle speaker systems and other such foofaraw all serve a purpose, but the laws of physics dictate that two channel music, as heard through big old speakers still sounds best.
cheers to all.