Should speakers be the most high-end of your components?

I agree this is a good, basic starting point for most people who are just starting to build a system. The size and shape of the room, acoustic properties, and equipment placement is a primary concern from the beginning. You have to start somewhere, right? More experienced folks may build around a prize amp, preamp or turntable. Synergy has been mentioned many times and the importance of component matching can not be over emphasized. In the end, each component can have a dramatic effect on the overall sound, especially in a very revealing system. Simply changing the coupling capacitors in your preamp can be a game changer. The more I dabble in this hobby, the more I realize that each component must pull it's own weight, or it will be a noticeable weak link in the chain.

 

Not for LP JV, but not quite as critical for digital which can give you bitperfect transfer for way less. Especially if DAC duties are catered for by an amp.

 

Everything in the signal path should be sonically equal to or better than what precedes it. Price doesn't guarantee this; your ears do.

 

Not easy to know, and speakers will always be less good.

 

Agree about not easy to know; if you can't audition a component at home then you have to take your chances.

I don't think I understand what you mean about the speakers?

 

I just mean that speakers can never be as good as amp?

 

That is old school thinking. The difference between amps of similar power output may not be as big as you think with new technologies.

 

I thought the beginning of the chain is....

The power cord.

 

Yes

But it rarely works out that way for regular folks.

 

The difference is that I would not buy a Class-T amp if I had $700 to spend. I'd buy an integrated tube amp.

 

Only if you polish the pins. Stroke away from the body at half lunar eclipse.

 

Yes.

Speakers are the most easily identifiable component in virtually any system. It is easy to tell speakers apart when you listen to them. Amplifiers, preamp, cables are much tougher.

Sources and DAC's are in between.

The room is probably #2. (think of the difference just between a large and small room, or between a "dead" and "live" room for example).

Most people would have trouble easily telling apart 2 SS Amps in the $5-10k range, or 2 Tube amps of roughly the same price.

Speakers in a similar price range? Easy to tell apart. Biggest/most important component in the chain as far as making a difference.

 

Speakers are vital. I mean... it's what the sound comes out of. That's a given.

Different amps sound very different... at least to me, they always have. Not speaking about the newer amps, which I know nothing about, but the vintage amps when they were new.

Different TT carts sound 'very' different.

Cables, not so much but... if you find the right cables that match your system, synergy, it's a 'wonderous' thing. You will know it when you hear it, it's immediately apparent.

Apparently there is a world of difference between CD players too, so everyone seems to say here. & DACs. And TTs.

I think it ALL makes a really big difference.

 

Rogue has demo'd the Cronus Magnum at shows with the 1.7 so I suspect it is a pretty good match. In a large dead room you might need even more power. I wouldn't go strictly by the price, the best way is to audition speakers with your amp if possible. You might want to check out Vandersteen.

 

I agree with part a. Have not tried part b.

 

Well recommend a good receiver with speakers for a medium size room.

 

Try to keep your components within the same class(pricewise). However, don't let the speakers be your weak link.

 

Buy the best LS you can and match the rest of the system to it
With active speakers all you need is laptop or streamer, its very simple now
All that Linn / Naim nonsense set hifi back 20 yrs.

 

I belong to the everything affects everything school, so that you will get the best sound if you evenly distribute your expenditures across the system. That said, if bass is important, you might have to put more into the speakers. Also, at some point everything else in the system may be so good, that the best upgrade might be to the speakers.

 

yep speakers are the least important to me. the source is paramount. a great cartridge is where it's at. ITS the thing reading the grooves. then arm, then phono etc down the chain.

 

So that great cartridge is going to sound good with subpar speakers? I tend to doubt that very much. Yes the cartridge is "reading the grooves" but the end of the chain is the speakers. So if you have a $5000 cartridge in a system with $300 speakers it's not going to sound up to the potential that it could with better speakers IMO.

I feel the speakers and the room are the biggest factors in a systems overall SQ. I also agree with many who have posted in this thread that system "synergy" is very important as well.

Bill

 

IME, upgraded amps, CD players, TTs, and carts, etc, have all made a large respective differences to general sound quality; but nothing in the equipment chain seems to affect the overall end result like speakers, and variations therein, and how they interact with the room.

Synergy/complimentary-ness between all components is obviously critical.

And that's not considering source material.

 

Nonsense.

 

PRAT.

 

What's "LS"?

Bill