Amp more important than speakers?

Speakers first. I experimented with Energy Encores as my mains for a while, replacing another bookshelf B&W CM1. The Encores sounded so muddy and distant that even a stranger would refuse to believe I have a decent system after hearing them.

Quality speakers with average gear is more bearable than quality gear with average speakers IMHO.

Your system is as good as you weakest link. Fine a pair of speakers you like and then ask the manufacturer what amp they like to use to test it.
I like Totem and they use to use Plinius Amps and they told me about good cables and DAC to go with the amp.
that's how I did it and I now have a $40,000 system that will blow away one 3 or 4 times the cost

Advice... yeah.
I bought a Pair of Infinity RSIIa speakers because i loved them. Added an average amp and was satisfied, that was 25 years ago.
Then I bought a Forte' 4a amp. that was good with the Infinities.
Then I bought a pair of B&W 805s. They were OK. but I missed the dipole sound.
So I bought a pair of Magnepan 3.6s. And since i wanted THOSE speakers, I checked around and the concensus was that Bryston amp paired up good with Maggies.
So I auditioned the combo and was satisfied. And bought a Bryston $B-SST2 for my Maggies.

Really IMO most folks fall in love with some SPEAKER first, then search for the amp for it.
I do not think very many folks buy an AMP, and then look for a speaker to go with the amp?
And i would say the amp and speaker are a pair, and need to work together well. And the cost is comparable. Especially when one gets into better speakers. You need to have a equally good amp.
(My amp is probably at the bottom of what the speakers COULD use IMO..., but it is fine for me. Some bigger Amps though, i am certain, could make my Maggies sing even better.. but money is an issue.)

Elizabeth, you're probably going to laugh at this, but it's true.

A while back I bought a used pair of Maggie SMGa series II speakers for use in my smaller room (I had 1.6's in there previously but they overpowered the room in the treble).

I was not having great luck with amplification. For a while I used a Parasound P/LD-2000 line preamp into a VTL ST-85 amp and it sounded ok but not great. The ST-85 actually sounded quite good in triode mode but lacked power.

I tried the W4S ST-250 but that was not a great match. Then for a while I used a VTL TL-2.5 line preamp with a Quicksilver GLA 40-watt tube amp. I liked this combo quite a bit but again, ultimately it was somewhat laid back and lacked power.

The other day, just for laughs I took an Onkyo TX-SR705 surround receiver (over 100 wpc and WRAT analog amps that could be set for 4 Ohms). At first I didn't like the presentation, but as I fine tuned it and tried its Pure Audio and CD-Direct modes things began looking up. Next I put a ferrite bead on the power cord and put a weight on the metal cover to damp vibration.

I kid you not, it came to life and is sounding pretty outstanding. It throws a coherent "wall of sound" that to me is reminiscent of listening to Maggie Tympani 1D's with Audio Research electronics back in the day.

Mind you I'm not saying the VTL/Onkyo combo can't be beat, but I am saying it's a lot of fun and probably the best sounding (or most synergistic) amplification chain I've used with the little Maggies in this room so far. So I guess I'm going backwards in order to move forward.

a great speaker with a budget amp will give better results than a great amp with budget speaker ....

regards,