The more I immerse myself in this hobby since I retired from the entertainment industry in 2008, the more certain I have become that the amplifier is the most important and telling piece of equipment in your system. It was in the late 1970s that J. Gordon Holt stated in Stereophile that one should buy a very good speaker that fits your needs and then bust your budget on an excellent amplifier. I have more or less followed that advice over the last half century of reproducing music in my home.