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I was lied to...

Preamp and source are much further down the chain of importance. I was very much of the “garbage in, garbage out” school. No longer.
 
Interesting. Speakers do make a huge difference to the sound in a particular room, but I still believe in source first. You can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear! In reality it’s all about have a balanced system that works well as a whole in a given space.
 
I still think that source first is the right approach, but what we need to get over is the assumption, promulgated by the hifi mags that a more expensive X is a better X. They never compare budget equipment with high end equipment, and I only did this 'accidentally' when I has a borowed £2k DAC and £2k preamp at home when a £500 DAC/Pre arrived. The difference wasn't even subtle. I now have a £30 source with £10k speakers, but I challenge anyone to find a source better than my RPi in my system.
 
What's most important is autosuggestion. Just keep saying to yourself this is best, this is best, this is best... After a while your gonna believe it.
 
Preamp and source are much further down the chain of importance. I was very much of the “garbage in, garbage out” school. No longer.

Now after 20 years you’ve got your room, speakers and what drives them well and truly sorted perhaps a better source component will reveal its prowess more readily.
 
Nothing can beat the sound quality of an earworm inside your head on repeat loop, driving you slowly mad until it’s recorded. You don’t even need a HiFi for that.
 
Anyway, source first in what sense?

For digital, certainly not in terms of £ spent.

The only way to think about this is balancing quality/performance of each part of the replay chain - and that likely means spending the most of your hard-earned on the speakers.
 
Anyway, source first in what sense?

For digital, certainly not in terms of £ spent.

The only way to think about this is balancing quality/performance of each part of the replay chain - and that likely means spending the most of your hard-earned on the speakers.

YES couldn't agree more after 55 years playing around with the stuff. Lusted after ATC 100A's for years, only made it to a pair of clones, about 80% ATC. Happy to change anything else, but not them......guess they won't fit into a nursing home room:(
 
A balanced system is best, with the biggest overall spend being on the speakers.

The which first question applies more to incremental component upgrades where you want to take the system to the next level but can’t do it all in one go.

If you upgrade speakers first you will hear all the deficiencies of an inferior source. If you go source first you won’t hear what it’s truly capable of until you upgrade the speakers.
 
Well OK. The amp (Naim pre power) is a bit ott. But it's there and I love it.
My other amp is a Yamaha A-s801 which is also nice.
And digital upsets the apple cart. My favourite CD player cost c£0.15k off eBay.
Very nice.
 


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