Amp more important than speakers?

I think it is very true that the potential of very good speakers can only be realized with very good (not necessarily very expensive} amplification and sources, but the OP almost makes it sound like Harbeth HL5s are mid-fi speakers. They are actually pretty expensive. (but very good)

If the room is acoustically okay and not too big any good speaker will interact reasonably well with it. Interaction with some audiophiles' brains however is a totally different story. Especially if they have transistors instead of neurons.

Interaction with some audiophiles' brains however is a totally different story. Especially if they have transistors instead of neurons.

ROTHFLMAO

If solid state people have transistors, then what's in the brains of tube people? A vacuum?

Seriously, Inna your last post reduced the interaction between a speaker and a room to one sentence and the result is only reasonably well performance. I can see where a sense of humor would be helpful in situations like that.

I guess after all these years, and many systems and components later, I have a somewhat different philosophy from most of what is expressed here about what should "come first." If the goal is to buld a decent system, then that is exactly what should be the initial goal, i.e. a sensible and audibly pleasing balanced selection between source components, amplification and speakers. No matter how good or desireable the speakers, at the outset, if the source is found to be lacking, then no matter what amplification and cabling, the speakers will not provide all the musical resolution and depth they are capable of. Conversely, a great source and amplifier feeding mediocre speakers are also unlikely to provide the complete potential of the system. This is why it should be all about the SYSTEM (as I have harped more than once on this forum over the years). It's about the system and it's about component balance. So, yes, it could be speakers first, like, throw $15K into Vandersteen 5A (latest version) speakers (and please, don't say these aren't decent speakers) and then feed them a cheap CD player and big box, inexpensive HT receiver with the goal of sometime upgrading the upstream components. While there may be initial happniness, there will eventually be disatisfaction along the way and the owner may end up blaming the speakers (hey, be nice!). A better balance would be to select 2C Sigs or 3As and use the remaining money for an equivalent quality CD player and amp that could also function for the time when funds for the 5A upgrade are available, and the upstream components will be satisfactory until such time as upstream components can also be upgraded. In the end, it should be about balance, not what comes first. Upgrading is a necessarily (possible fun) evil of this pasttime, hobby, passion, endeavour, addiction, life altering force...