What was your biggest priority?

records and cd's absorb about 3/4ths of the money i spend in this hobby. speakers & amps, preamp, cd player, turntable/arm/cartridge, in that order consume the rest. cost of components were about the same for each. very very little spent on tweaks, other than speaker cable and interconnect.

For me, the biggest expenditure was for the speakers. The power amps are next at about 70-80% of the speaker costs. Following that is the speaker wire at about 50% of the power amps. Following that are the DAC set-up and the pre-amp at about the same cost and at about 65% of the speaker cable. Note that I really "needed" that speaker cable for a previous set-up and I kept it in the one I have now. My analog system is used and nice but not fantastic. My power regenerator is pretty good. My cables overall are OK but not fantastic. My CD player is good but not fantastic. My next steps are to look at cables and pre-amp. My lowest priority, but something I will get to, are power cables -- right now, I've got good but not great pc's. Good question -- I look forward to seeing other responses.

P.S. Someday, I also hope to really dig into analog, but that's pretty pricey to do right and I would also have to invest heavily in records.

My most expensive component is my turntable (an old entry level Linn LP12). I got it because I was sold, er, convinced that Linn's source first thinking was the way to go. (The pretty wood LP12 base helped a bit, too.) I think source first does have a lot going for it with record playing systems, not so much for CD systems if for no other reason than CD players are hot today, door stops in the morning.

Today, my philosophy is that a lot depends on the user and his or her needs.

Definately my amps... 2 systems... Aragon Palladiums, in the ss system and Sonic Frontiers in the tube setup It took a while before I really found amps that meshed with my system... once the amps were nailed down, everything just got better!..Cables definately second... Source gear third..Krell kav 300 and classe cdp3.. and my modified Rega p3...But overall, material is the most consitently purchased items.. cds, lps, and dvds..

Relatively equal for turntable, phono stage, amps. Cables the highest cost due to long runs and the room equal to all cost of equipment combined.