most people are saying speakers to start out with should be biggest spend. I’m going to be the contrarian

I think decent amps are going to be your biggest bang for the buck. though good cheaper amps are becoming more accessible, I’m generally feeling like I’m lacking the power I want more than the quality of the speakers is the issue.

I’m also a contrarian to a lot of the opinions of audiophiles in that I like DSP and feel like you can make some decent improvements with DSP on less than ideal speakers if you have a decent amp and enough power.

but generally your speakers are going to be your weakest link, and the thing you’d want to upgrade, so if you can get to endgame amp fastest and then upgrade speakers over time that’s more worth it to me.

I’m also coming to the hobby as a speaker builder, so IMO i’d rather work with some cheaper drivers and build a good speaker than buy a set of speakers. Most of what you are paying for when it comes to speakers is the enclosure. If you look at some really high end speakers like in the 100k range that are classic “box” type speakers, you’ll find a lot of the time the actual speakers and components used in them are making up probably less than 10% of the value of the speakers and its more the design, fit and finish, exotic materials, and recouping R&D that makes up the expense. and at those price points you’re often getting into diminishing returns as far as clarity goes anyways.

It really depends a lot on what your goals are though, you can get some extremely detailed, professional quality powered studio monitors and then you’re messing up the whole “how much for an amp vs speakers” game