Ok this will be a good thread.

You guys are getting me crying again! Thank you all for caring for a relative stranger. Twl we are blessed with a second wonderful angel of a dog who was Jax' companion for the past three years. His name is Diesel (appropriate for a 115 lb Bullmastiff). He misses Jax as much as we do and I think keeps wondering when she's going to show up again. Perhaps in the future we may consider yet another to be Diesel's companion. You are right though, there was only one 'Jax' and no other like her. Pardon the digression to a subject far from the topic of the post as well as from stereo gear in general. Those who share my love for dogs can get a few smiles from some pics I've done of Jax on a friends website here She made a whole lot of people smile in her lifetime. Thank you for the latitude and bandwidth to share her with all of you.

Marco

Very nice photos, Marco. I have a 135 pound male Rottweiler named Magnum. He just turned 2 years old, and was born on my 46th birthday. My previous Rottweiler was named Thunder and he died at 6 years old from cancer. He was as good as they get. I like the "big dogs" like you do. My dog is scary as hell to look at, but he's just a big baby to me. He wears a 30 inch collar!

My old next door neighbor(who moved away now) was a Pit Bull breeder, and had 37 of them next door. Blues, Red Noses, Brindles, Black and White, all kinds. He had this awesome Red Nose named Chief that was 105 pounds of solid muscle. A perfect traditional Southern Red Nose with a head like a concrete block. A very awesomely beautiful dog.

Give Diesel a big hug for me.

Damn, Marco; A real bummer. My wife and i lost the cat and she was amazed that I still could drop a tear over a year later.

Keeping the dogs at bay (I'm a cat lover), and getting back on topic.

SPEAKERS are obviously the most important link in the chain!! For the reason given by others above that they are the most prone to aspects of distortion. All modern electronic equipment after a $1000 price point are generally competent and good at controlling distortion figures, but the accuracy of speakers varies greatly - regardless of price.

Speakers have the greatest 'physical' impact on the sound produced in your house. THEY PHYSICALLY SHIFT AIR AND THEREFORE REACT TO THE BOUNDARIES OF THE ROOM. All speakers interact differently with different rooms, so the opportunity for error (ie, bad sound) is much greater.

A loudspeaker's response and interaction with a room (and positioning) is one of the biggest arbiters in determining good/bad sound overall. When was the last time you chose a Preamp, Power Amp, a CDP, a DVDP, a DAC or a hi-end turntable because it did or didn't suit your room ?? Not very often I imagine...

While on the subject of turntables, and to give you an historical perspective on this topic. Who do you think was one of the first people to hypothesise that the front end is the most important component? It was none other than Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn Sondek turntable fame, in the early 1970's. Naturally, being a purveyor (seller) of hi-end turntables - he would say this, wouldn't he? The hi-fi press at the time bought this fable and we've had to live with it for the last 30yrs or more. Ivor has a lot to answer for, considering also that his bouncy turntable set-up is not the most accurate transducer either!

Regards,

Stevem 1960, nice to hear someone with a sense of perspective on things audio. I have no idea of your age, but that may very well be a factor in your views. The source first notion, while appearing logical, is flawed in that it is based on the premise that all the links in the audio chain offer the same challenge to the designer and manufacturer. That's how you get audiophiles to accept that cables are as important as sources, preamps, amps or speakers. Once you put each link on the same footing, swallowing the source first notion is a direct consequence. Could you help me out here? A comment on the archival superiority of digital I made in another thread elicited the response that someone should buy me a pony. What does that expression mean, aside from the fact that my not consistently coming down on the side of analog in the GREAT DEBATE relegates me to the ranks of a tin-eared mid-fier (or worse)? Regards.