Ok this will be a good thread.

Without question it is the speakers. Imagine the same source with either a electrostatic, planar, ribbon or dynamic speaker. Obviously they will sound extremely different. Much more so than changing the source. But as always synergy is the key.

I would have said the source 2 years ago but it seems to me that there are many affordable sources.So I vote for speakers I have tried listening to my $14000 horns on a sony boombox would rather listen to a great speaker this way then a cheap speaker on a great source .Tried the great source affordable speaker, works best with a great speaker and affordable sources and amps

Part of the confusion is that there are two questions here. The speakers have the biggest impact on the sound, but the preamp is the most important piece in the system. Why? Although the distortions in electronics are several orders of magnatude lower than those in transducers, the distortions are of a distinctly "electronic" nature. I can only speak for myself in finding these electronic based distortions far more destructive to the fabric of the music than the greater distortions of transducers which I find broadly consonant with the musical message.

Oh Marco, Marco, you've found what you were looking for...

Threads, like all iterations, change, and particularly when they go along this long. I don't detect that much divergence from the original inquiry, at least not one that would require your police-ing, and particularly given that there was a recent and significant time gap since, er, last YEAR. What's the matter, Marco, got up this morning and just thought you'd found a nice egg to crack, and so took the chance, just to juice that lizard (you know, the one in the R-complex part of your brain), just to make you feel more like a "me" today, because its anonymous here and you feel like you can be more of a "me" absent your peers' physical proximity? Did it make you "feel" better?

Marco, a seed for your search...

twl, what chemical-electrical "signal" derives from a synapse firing in the mind of the singer, into the electrical "signal" of the mike, through the electrical "signals" via stereo components, to the chemical-electrical "signal" in you?

Energy transference, or tranduction, or transmutaion, or iteration, et al, by any other name...

Fear of Change; desire to make others conform to your ideas; the ego juice when you vent on that egg. Does that sound a little closer to the originating causal "signal" for your, er, help, Marco...?

Mark

Asa - Do not arouse the wrath of the GREAT and POWERFUL OZ! You may just think you were outing a mere mortal the likes of all of you, but you are sadly mistaken: I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ!!!!

So let me try to pose the original question in an entirely different way....let's take this to the extreme: You are destined to live out your life on a desert island. You have your existing collection of music, be it vinyl, digital, or both. The island happens to have 120V dedicated power service, and a centrally air conditioned "Listening-Hut" custom built by Rives and equipped with dedicated circuits and cryo'd Porter-Plugs. You have absolutely no one to impress with your expensive and fancy hardware, your exquisite obsessive taste, your pride in ownership of the very 'best of the best'. It is just you, your music collection, the island and the listening hut for the rest of your days on this earth (we'll assume the rest of your life is catered as well....no, the caterer doesn't see or hear your system either, meals just show up on the beach). OK, so here are your choices:

You get a system consisting of Walker Proscenium Turntable, An Audionote DAC5 with some suitable transport, your very favorite amplification of choice (the choice of amplification remains consistent through the two choices), and a pair of vintage 1976 Radio Shack speakers to listen to all that on. We'll call this the "Source" system.

Your alternate choice is headed up with one of my all-time favorites, the Kenner Close-and-Play turntable (suitably wired to run through conventional power and amplication and graced with a BMI Whale running power from those incredible Porter-Plugs), a bone stock original 1984 Sony Discman D-50 with the stock RCA cord adapter and AC transformer, feeding into that wonderful amplification you chose (Lamm perhaps), and this time running through a pair of Calix Phoenix Signature speakers. We'll call this the "Speaker" system.

OK, so your doomed to listen to one of these two systems for the rest of your natural life.....which one would you choose? Remember, it's just you and your music.

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN!

.....oh, and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!!

Marco