Musiqlovr, I whole heartedly agree with you, speakers should always come first. Let me explain.
I use to frequent an audio business of rare quality. It was owned by Keith Yates of home theater design fame. He carried only the very best components. I watched and listened to a parade of great speakers debut on a weekly basis. All speakers enjoyed the best upstream components available. One speaker stood clearly above and beyond all others. I had to have that speaker. Knowing what kind of amp I needed to drive that speaker culled out almost all choices. I was lucky to have a wonderful cd player demonstrated at my place. That left only the pre amp. I just chose the most sonically invisible one I could afford.
I'm in music heaven now. And that is all because I realized the fallacy of front end first. It doesn't matter what golden player you plug into a sows ear of a speaker, it still will be a sows ear. I've heard plenty of great everything but the speaker systems, and every one was a disappointment.
I use to frequent an audio business of rare quality. It was owned by Keith Yates of home theater design fame. He carried only the very best components. I watched and listened to a parade of great speakers debut on a weekly basis. All speakers enjoyed the best upstream components available. One speaker stood clearly above and beyond all others. I had to have that speaker. Knowing what kind of amp I needed to drive that speaker culled out almost all choices. I was lucky to have a wonderful cd player demonstrated at my place. That left only the pre amp. I just chose the most sonically invisible one I could afford.
I'm in music heaven now. And that is all because I realized the fallacy of front end first. It doesn't matter what golden player you plug into a sows ear of a speaker, it still will be a sows ear. I've heard plenty of great everything but the speaker systems, and every one was a disappointment.