What made the biggest, most noticeable improvement

Aaron, perhaps we are speaking past each other; I was referring to genres of components, not any one system I have built. I have built dozens of systems with a high turnover of gear, so I have indeed experienced all of the components I mentioned as perceptually conferring the most impressive change at the time. Inevitably it gets usurped by another as the rigs change.

If tweaking our semantic understanding does not close the gap in our conclusions, then it's likely we will not see eye to eye on this, which is ok. :)

One of the points I was hinting at is that when it comes to perceived improvement we are creatures of the moment and that what strikes us as impressive in that moment easily takes predominance in our minds. It is difficult to state with certainty that something we were impressed by months ago was less impressive than what we were just impressed by. :)

IMO, it's playing in quicksand to discuss perceptions of efficacy of one genre of component type (i.e. DAC vs. Preamp vs. Speaker vs. cables) over another, for it's difficult to extract the one and assess it apart from the system! ;) In the development of a single rig, sure, that may be seen, but extension of the experience to all audio systems is hard to defend.

For that reason I consider it a fairly useless endeavor to try to gain consensus in regards to a component which is able to confer the biggest advantage and seek it, much less apportion the budget accordingly (Maybe it would be acceptable to do so with speakers, but little else). Get the right amp and a person is likely to say the amp can make the biggest difference. Get the right speakers and an individual may conclude the speakers are most important, etc.

As usual, YMMV and I'm not interested in arguing my experiences in it further. :)

Hi, Douglas.
I'm glad that, although I spoke directly, you didn't take offence to my questioning your ideas themselves, as I interpreted them. I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment, so I'm content not to post what would likely be a long response in attempt to sort something out. I'm assuming interested users—if there be any left—can work through the ideas themselves :)

Cheers,

Aaron

Blimo, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Those with simple tastes can be ecstatic with a boom box. Assuming you are on the other end (never satisfied 100%), I'd offer you two paradigms that may help you weigh your investments in audio

(1) you can't hear what never gets to the speaker; conversely most of what goes wrong is in your source. So work hard at getting your source(s) right or else all else is a waste with amplified listening fatigue cutting listening sessions short.
(2) audio gear past the source is like ice cream, it has flavors and all of us have unique flavor preferences. Sample all the gear you can and home in on your favorite "flavor" first, then try to figure out in that manufacturers line what you can afford. Pay particular attention to the technology of that flavor, hopefully theres more than 1 manufacturer so that you have a range of price options other than stratospheric.

and looking at your original question, for PC digital audio in order of importance

1) a separate quality DAC (no guts, no glory)($600~$1000)
2) the John Kenny MKIII smoked the VLink I had for async USB conversion... they aren't even in the same class (~$400)
3) Jplay in xstream mode brings it to life, can't listen without it (~$80)
4)Fidelizer in extremist mode adds more focus (free)
5) JRiver Media center makes it easy to use (~$60)

my disc players are all gathering dust, can't compete with PC audio and high res downloads with the setup above.

Thanks for the info Davide! I liked your ice cream flavor analogy, that does make sense. I do agree that the source is of utmost importance. I will look into all the pc related stuff you mentioned once I come to that point in my system. I really want to figure out how to achieve better sound that what you can get from c.d.'s without going the vinyl route (which I will probably add at some point too :-))