Priorities...

I don't mind you guys having a discussion...

I'm looking into the Alta Audio Rheas & just waiting for correspondence from Mike from Alta Audio...& the possibility of buying ARC Ref 210 monos...maybe a Ref 5se as well...

Years ago,in a Stereophile Magazine interview,Bill Dundelston(sp?),owner & builder of Legacy audio products,was asked what he considered the hierarchy of the audio playback chain was.
He replied:Speakers.Recordings.Room Acoustics & LAST was Electronics.Cables & tweaks were NOT even mentioned.I never forgot that...

OP doesn't say his/her age......as we do, we hear less and less and also we hear differently.  ...perhaps great earphones would be a choice for serious listening, and owned speakers for  background music.

@freediver , absolutely stunning that a speaker manufacturer would claim that speakers are the most important part of the audio chain. I'm surprised that Time magazine did not cover that earth-shattering news release.

BTW, his name is Bill Duddleston. Good man. He is more responsible for my indoctrination into high end audio than anyone else. I saw a small, 4 line ad for his company, Reel To Real designs back then in 1987, in the back of Audio magazine. I contacted him, and he sent me a bunch of information and literature. Back then he was working out of his garage.
Magazines like Stereophile and The Absolute Sound, that I had never heard of. Speakers from companies like Vandersteen that I had never heard of. Opening the door into a whole new world.
I owned 3 pair of Legacy speakers from around 1987-2000, good stuff.

That said, it is still shocking that a speaker manufacturer would state that speakers are the most important part of the audio chain.
Who'd of thunk it???

The question to him was 'stupid' and provocative, he had little choice. He could've said - recording - , though. He also could've said that the question was not correct, that separation of elements would be artificial. Legacy speakers, good stuff but not great, right?