What is most important factor in digital audio playback quality?

[Darryl R]

I'm going to assert the same thing I've thought all along, the quality of the recording itself!  I sometimes marvel at how good my best RBCD recordings sound, in a collection with every format up to DXD and DSD256.

 

EDIT:  I now see this was already said by Ralph11.  I suppose most of us are trying to think positively these days, but the other side to my last comment would be how comparatively disappointing some "hi-rez" can be even on a fine system 😬