I 100% think that source is the most important part of the chain and where I always start. This is a change from the days before digital when, effectively, records were the only source. While everyone would invest in a great cartridge, phono preamp, and turntable, one very quickly would get to a point where a lot of money would make minimal improvement to sound. There was the belt/direct drive discussion, and certainly discussions around different cartridges, but most of it was around the same price point. Furthermore, until Original Master Recordings came about, the only possible improvement in software was either a very early or foreign pressing of a record. In those days , upgrading speakers provided the biggest bang for your buck.

With digital, there’s more room for effective improvement per dollar and myriad choices of software to play. The difference in potential fidelity between a cheap, low bit rate MP3, and a record or a 192khz/24bit PCM, MQA or DoubleDSD copy of the same Master is quite different. The DACs required can also make a significant difference in the potential fidelity of the source. So this changes the “speakers are most important “ rule of thumb. Don’t misunderstand me. There is still a point of diminishing returns with DACs and software as well, but it doesn’t necessarily happen at the lower cost like record players.

Ever since the first time I heard and liked a classic rock album at 96k/24bit of a record I loved and a CD I despised, I have always bought music on the best purely analog records and highest legitimate resolution Digital copy along with the best sounding DAC and record player I could afford. I’m so happy I did that because as I gained access to better and better amplifiers and speakers, the better it all sounded.

It wasn’t always the most expensive, either. I love my DAC and its around $500 and I’d have to spend more than $5000 to get only marginal improvements. Same with my record player. I’d have to spend more than $10,000 for only marginal better sound.

Records have now become a challenge too. Back when I bought my OMR of Abbey Road and American Beauty, an OMR almost always sounded more realistic than the OG pressings. They were a bit heavy on bass, but I didn’t mind.

These days though, MoFi and a lot of popular records are from digital masters with some (Radiohead, some U2) that sound like CDs with record noise and more hiss. And, some SACDs, BluRays,and, so-called “hi res” FLAC are from 44.1 or 48khz masters upsampled to DSD or 96/24 PCM. But, its worth the effort to have the best possible copy. It’s almost impossible, in some cases, to know what you’re buying until you buy it and play it.

Because I have the best digital recordings available and have put them on my phone, I can take my iPhone, USB3 camera adapter, USB powered DAC, plug it into any system and audition anything I might want to buy to upgrade my system and can hear what the components might bring out.

If I win the lottery, I absolutely will spend > $100,000 on a record player and >$2000 on an Oppo for surround and MQA DAC as well as pickup a few titles that are expensive so that when I spend the next hundreds of thousands on electronics and speakers, I’ll hear everything I should.

Even before spending money on the rest, the excellent source is worth it on cheap systems like the Bose in my car.

Bottom line is that source, before diminishing returns point, is best bang for the buck.

Speakers are most important. Everything is important it is a “ SYSTEM “ after all. The source matters for sure but if the speakers can’t reproduce the detail, dynamic swings, and a pleasing frequency response of a great source then what good is the source? I generally consider the speakers to be responsible for 70-80% of the sound of a system.

Even cheap amps, dacs, preamps etc are good. Meanwhile, speakers are a complex piece of electromechanical equipment where everything can go wrong, the drivers, the topology, the box, the crossover, placement, room, your ears.

Particularly with digital sources, unless you are going out of your way to use a crappy source, differences are marginal. Accurately Converting a digital signal is a very easy and cheap thing to do with modern technology, isn’t much room for improvement by spending more. The THD of the DAC circuit in a $10 USB to 3.5mm adaptor is 0.01%. Which is about 1/10 the amount of distortion that would be audible even with the best ears listening to be best system.

The Signal to noise ratio of the Apple dongle is 99 dB, which means you would need to crank the volume to 99 dB to get 1 dB of unintended noise. For reference the ambient noise in a fairly quiet room is 20-30 dB and 85 DB is when you start damaging your ears, so you would have to turn the volume up to injurious levels to create 1/20 the amount of noise in a quit room. If you want spend thousands of dollars to make the noise and distortion even more inaudible than what you already couldn’t hear, of course someone will be happy to sell it to you.

With speakers, because you have mechanical motion, there will always be things flexing and rubbing and vibrating, so there is far more room for improvement. Analog, by definition requires mechanical movement, so again there is more difference between the signals produced by different analog devices.

Just to level set here. It’s not my intention to persuade anyone on this forum. I am sharing my thoughts and experiences and am interested in hearing if anyone has actual firsthand experience that would support the belief that speakers are most important. I am not interested in dogma, but actual experiences that might cause me to change my mind. I never assume I have the correct mindset and enjoy hearing thoughtful and informed opinions.