How much do you think needs to be put into Speakers of a Stereo system?

Not sure what he is saying, but you can get the Teac UD-H01 DAC for $199. Killer deal.

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/teac-ud...o&adid=29963&gclid=COKfgLHE8b8CFYZaMgodsngAUg

 

Hows that DAC compare to the CD 650s internal or for that matter the more expensive Marantz 605? 199.00 is pretty good deal.

I found this on the CD 650.
PCM1791A Burr Brown DAC
The CD-P650 uses the PCM1791A Burr Brown D/A converter, renowned for its fidelity, faithful audio reproduction, and excellent THD+N and dynamic range characteristics. The PCM1791A also plays a major role in rendering acoustic and soundstage characteristics.
The UD-HO1 uses Burr-Brown 32bit/192kHz dual DAC (PCM1795). Muse 8920 dual operation amplifier.

 

i have always found it amazing that anyone would ask what speakers they should buy.

speakers are such an individual and personal thing, what i like you might hate and so on.

i suggest you go listen to as many different speakers as you can, which i realize is difficult to do in this day and age, and then make your decision. a good shop will let you hook your own amp to them when you test them, at least they did in the old days.

but please, don't let anyone tell you what speakers you should buy, only you can tell you what you should buy. go out and listen...if you can.

 

Who you replying to here? Don't think it was about a speaker recommendation at all. It was just percentage to spend on speakers.

 

i must have mis-read...sorry!

 

You really don't know what you're talking about, do you? For a lot of people on this forum the point of spending real money on a modern turntable is getting as much as possible out of their LPs because, for these people, LPs have consistently sounded better than the alternatives. As for your "test" of raping the plinth while an LP is playing, that doesn't determine if a turntable is good or bad, it just is an indication of how much isolation the plinth has from the subchassis. Different designs work out these issues in different ways, but as regards sound quality there's more than one approach.

 

You sound mad. And I do not profess to know it all. But what I said about isolation is true. To some isolation is very important. Lifting the lid or walking by the TT causing audible sounds in the speakers matters to some people.

 

Isolation is one thing and not necessarily the only thing in turntable design. Rega turntables, very highly regarded, don't have the isolation of the Linn Sondek turntables, also highly regarded. There are isolation platforms for turntables like the Regas, also shelf mounting. You simply don't know what you're talking about.

 

Why did I say that was false? You looking for a fight where one does not exist. Just stay on topic.

 

I am staying on topic. You gave misinformation as regards turntables.

 

The topic is about how much to spend on speakers not TT. And there was no misinformation you simply read into what you wanted to see.

 

I learned the hard way that the quality of the source is all-important. As a Redbook CD listener only, I began my audiophile journey feeding an integrated straight out of a cheap Oppo DVD. Things never sounded right, especially strings. I now have a heaily-researched $3k digital front end and recently did a with- and without comparison to assess what th various parts of my front-end were doing. My conclusion was that my $1k transport feeding the preamp had significantly less information in the signal than that passed through a cheap Audio-Gd reclocker and my pretty nice NOS DAC (that's even before any judgement about sound quality - this was just how much information as getting through). So I advise anyone who has what they think is a pretty good CD player to investigate whether their CD playback is really being optimized. I have my doubts it is.

 

BTW, I may be an outlier once I take delivery of my new preamp, I will have about a third of my new system cost tied up in the preamp. I'm interested in seeing how it turns out. Anyone in the same area of preamp spend % as me?

 

So you are thinking the transport and not the DAC was causing the missing information?

What kind of speakers are you using with this?

 

The comparison was between a CD player fed straight into the preamp versus transport > reclocker > DAC > preamp. I'm using framed Magnepan MMGs.

 

What I have learned is that some folks think they know all the answers. And they will get upset at anyone who does not agree.

Then there are some other folks who do know plenty of answers, and they realize those answers probably only work some of the time.

And finally there are people who know very little.

Naturally we have all three types here.

Me? I know very little.. But what I do know is that most others are in the same boat I am. (or should be)

 

A mans got to know his limitations I know enough to be dangerous, got room in that boat?

 

No system is better than the weakest component of the system. So, the balanced system concept applies. Where everything is of comparable grade. The demanding, inefficient or revealing speaker, needs equipment paired with it which does not bring out the bad qualities of said speaker.

 

How much should you put into speakers? As much as you possibly can.

 

Interesting thread. Seems like everyone has their favorite parts of the system to throw the most money at. Since I rarely listen to headphones and want a dynamic loud sound, amplification becomes my highest priority. Right now it's running at ~ 45%. The benefits of power (~230 watts / channel) present themselves in more than just brute force. They make the system sound better- more responsive, more ready to jump at a moment's notice- even at low volume where you might believe a lower powered amplifier would be adequate. Often when the sound is strained at moderate volume levels, example midrange glare or harshness, it is really early stages of an amplifier losing composure. This can happen with amplifiers with surprisingly high power ratings.
Speakers are important, so are sources. My speaker percentage is ~ 19% at the moment. If I had to skimp on an area at first it would most definitely be turntable and CD player. As long as the table can support a decent cartridge that is. Mid level CD players sound acceptable and you can always upgrade later. Cables- ~ 0.9%.

 

I think it's the quality of those watts more than the qty. A lot of the most effortless, dynamic sounding systems I've heard were either pure class A or heavily biased in that direction. Kind of like HP/Ft-lbs Tq numbers in cars. Give me some low end torque over 6000 rpm hp numbers any day. That's what I've picked up on most in Class A set ups - top to bottom dynamics presented at face value even at lot volume levels rather than an overall softening/attenuation of everything equally across the board.

One of my first experiences was a Krell KSA 100 teamed up with some KEF Ref 105s in stereo vs those same speakers paired with a Denon flagship AVR. It was night and day at low listening levels. To get back to the car analogy, where we live (listen/drive) 90% of the time.

Bill

 

Absolutely. Dynamic power from quality amplifiers regardless of power rating. Would still shift the budget percentage towards amplification vs. speakers which is a very good way to go.

 

I am beginning to see the genius of the big amp plan. Cutting down on TT and Speaker cost could afford one a set of monoblocks.

 

People are way to far into cost and name than the music.
I have a ken wood model eleven hooked up to some odd vintage motorola speakers and some wharfendales i built into clones with some klipsch speakers and crossovers they sound better than the system in the living room hooked to the klipschhorns.

 

It depends on the listener, how they listen, what they listen to, what they listen for and how important things are to them given there are many rewarding things in this world to spend your money on.

Most speakers in the one to $2000 range will do a great job of painting the big picture and most people would probably be very happy with them myself included. The frequency response should be fairly flat and the soundstage acceptable.

Only the very best speakers will allow you to hear very fine details of the music. And in reality the biggest difference between a good speaker and a great one is probably in between the notes. All speakers will play the same notes. But not all speakers will get the decay between notes correct for instance. It's an extremely hard thing for a speaker to do you have to balance the mass of the cones along with the stiffness of the materials used and proper damping for resonances etc.

The question you have to ask yourself is this - is it worth it to me to shell out a lot of money and (I mean a lot because I've only heard a few speakers really do this well and they cost pretty big bucks) for those types of things or do I just care about the big picture. To some it's absolutely essential to others they only care about the big picture and don't need to see every single blade of grass move in the wind.

Of course it's more complicated than how I've laid it out but I don't have time to write a novel.