Pairing with an amp is very important. From my own personal experience, a good tube amp is best. OBVIOUSLY YMWV
Er, based not he arguments here, when one buys a utopia, one is buying the tires for the Aston Martin. One still needs to buy the rest of the car
Hahahaha ....well a bit more than just the tires but that was funny
HEY! I've met
@cskippy , and while he's a pretty buff guy, I would call him a dummy!
Weakest link is commonly the listener, expectation bias, and then the amp, not the source. Most of us listen to CD quality or better with a decent DAC. Assuming CD quality source material and a decent DAC, the the only thing that affects the sound less are the cables.
The human aspect can’t be quantified only averaged.
In order of importance:
Level 1:
Headphones/speakers
Quality and noise free connections from computer to DAC (if digital)
Well mastered CD quality (or better) source material, or from quality analog source
Level 2:
Amp (assuming paired well)
Cartridge (for turntable)
DAC (probably should be in Level 3)
Level 3:
of
relatively very low importance
Headphone Cable
Interconnect cable
Power Cable
vibration control (assuming it's basically under control)
power source (assuming it's not obviously noisy)
Tone Arm (for turntable)
Turn table platter and accessories
we got it.
Funny, I grew up in LA with In and Out. I much prefer Shack Shack
But I have not A/B tested.