The most important piece in a stereo system???

I cant believe how mixed the opinions are. I thought most of you would have said either the amp or the speakers. From most of the people that I have talked to, they either say the amp or the speakers is the most important. I also forgot to mention the room in my original post. I would like to hear more comments. thanks again!!

Souljasmooth: Consensus is real hard to come by in a field dominated by personal tastes. I'm not surprised a lot of people said "source," because that's been hyped by the marketing guys for a long time. IIRC, the "garbage in/garbage out" thesis was first articulated decades ago by a company that specialized in turntables. (Surprise!) It had some truth in analog days--there's no way an amp can fix flutter. Today, well, electronics are a lot more alike, and speakers are just as varied as ever. But people hear all kinds of things, so opinions will vary.

You are only as strong as your weakest link.

Just like a track team that runs relays, an outstanding performance from one participant can be completely hindered or even negated by a less than perfect contribution from someone else prior or after the fact. With that in mind, you may never know what one piece is capable of unless everything in the system is of equal capacity. Sean
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Well, everyones system has to start somewhere, so it may help to re-phrase the question, eg "what one piece of equipment would you most want to build the rest of your system around?". For a long time, I was convinced that source components amd pre-amp were most important-- until I got a really superb pair of speakers. Now, if I were to start from scratch, I would want the best speakers I could afford, and I would build the rest of my system around them.

That said, I also strongly believe in the weakest link approach and am constantly trying to identify it. As I've acquired better and better gear, I've also really come to appreciate the importance of good clean AC, the room/speaker interface, power cords, and certainly high quality recordings. I've enjoyed reading the varied responses above too. Good thread. Cheers. Craig.

Only as good as the weakest link. The entire system including the room.