What Hifi component should be the first priority?

[Jasonovich]

Back in the day, when people wore flared collars on their shirts, when Joan Collins was never seen without her shoulder pads, when dinosaurs turntables roamed the pages of What Hifi.

It was the view that the source was key component of your Hifi.
What comes through the window (your source component) is what is excreted out from your speaker.
Rubbish in is rubbish out
Back then, there was so much emphasis on your turntable as this was likely to be the primary source component.

Nowadays the message is rather diluted.
It appears to have shifted away to the amplifier and speakers.

Trying to avoid answering my own question, digital sourced medium isn't so critical as setting up as it is with vinyl but now that we have a renaissance, more people getting into vinyl.

Should we start going back to the basic principles, what goes in is what goes out?

Your thoughts on this please 🙂

 

[Kenneth Fernandes]

Is it difficult to launch an all in one digital mixing console at the Studio end and mix, monitor, record and master full digitally without any analog feedback or monitoring?
It’s absolutely possible and are already in the making and will be put in practice anytime soon.
So, the renaissance of going bank to vinyl listening now is irrelevant.

 

[jjbomber]

Your ears!

 

[Gray]

Is it difficult to launch an all in one digital mixing console at the Studio end and mix, monitor, record and master full digitally without any analog feedback or monitoring?

Difficult? Impossible more like.

For singers and listeners at least, analogue will always be involved in and out of mics and speakers.
And regardless of any fancy or 'perfect' intermediate digital cleverness, the sound will only be as good as those transducers will allow.

In answer to the thread title, I reckon most people now will say that speakers should be the priority (subject to appropriate room and driving amp being up to the tasks).

 

[Al ears]

Difficult? Impossible more like.

For singers and listeners at least, analogue will always be involved in and out of mics and speakers.
And regardless of any fancy or 'perfect' intermediate digital cleverness, the sound will only be as good as those transducers will allow.

In answer to the thread title, I reckon most people now will say that speakers should be the priority (subject to appropriate room and driving amp being up to the tasks).

My thoughts exactly.
The wrong speakers will make a mockery of the garbage in / garbage out theory.
With vinyl it was a different matter. Getting a good cartridge / tonearm was essential to extract the most you could from those grooves, however with digital input there is little you can do to improve the quality of the incoming data so source is no longer the main priority.