[Poll] What Percentage of Your System Budget Should go to Sources/Amps/Speakers?

MP-700 would likely cost $1K.

 

But it's an MP-700, man.
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25% sources
20% amps
30% speakers
10% cables
10% racks
5% misc accessories and such

 

What if you received a discount on one or more items, do you calculate based on discounted price or MSRP? What if you purchased used, do you calculate on purchased price or new price? Here is my digital setup based on MSRP:

* Source - 15% (Gungnir MB + Sony UBP-X800)
* Amp - 30% (Dynaco ST-70 Series 3)
* Speakers - 55% (Harbeth M30.1)

$1,500 + $3,000 + $5,500

 

This; balance is good. Allocate the missing 1% on snacks.

Although, I do believe that crap source = crap system. Period! No amount of spending down the line will make up for that, in fact spending more on amp/speakers will exacerbate the crapness. GIGO!

 

Apparently Bamboo toothpicks are now considered a better option than any other type of wooden pick, if you use them while you are listening to music.

 

Do they have to be broken in?

 

I honestly made a somewhat arbitrary selection because the semantics where eating my brain alive and I just wanted to to see the results. All in all I do think the 33% splits is my most realistic, but not what I voted.
If we were doing only an analog chain I would do 33/33/33, and I'd count the preamp as part of the source, not part of the amp section.
If we were doing only a digital chain I would do 20/40/40 or 15/42/42.

So here's my main points that made this hard.
I think you can spend a lot less to get a lot higher up the chain on the digital side of things. I full expect a a $1500 streamer/transport paired with a $1500-2000 DAC to smash a $3000-4000 TT/cart/phono combo. You get to the top end of digital MUCH faster, which blurs the lines on sources.

Secondly, are we talking about an all analog system, an all digital system, or a system with digital and analog? That's why I went with my choice of $62% sources, 12% amps, 25% speakers. I have a system supporting digital and analog. And at some point I kind of expect them to be equal performing sides. So given that it's basically two source chains, I figure I need more budget dedicated to that area.

Now I put less to amps because we'ere counting subs in with speakers. Maybe I won't always have subs, but I'm a big sub supporter, so that stacks up quickly as subs scale with speakers.

 

After around 100 hours of use they have the ability to remove plaque as well as food...

Sorry Cycline Ranger, I’ll shut up now. I did vote for what it’s worth!

 

try to make it equal as possible since I buy in pieces and started my audiophile journey kinda this year.

 

Roughly - 20% sources, 20% amp, 55% speakers, 5% cables and interconnects.

If you spend less than 50% on speakers, you are wasting your money.

If you spend huge amounts on tube amps, ask your yourself why you dumped your old CRT television.

 

When I built my system I didn't use any kind of percentage formula. I think system matching is most important, but space and room size come into play as well.

 

I don't think there is a magic formula. You pick the speakers, you find an amp that matches. In my case I got a deal on a pair of Magnepan 1.7 then matched them to my Cronus Magnum. The amp actually cost more than speakers. I upgraded my P3 to P5 previous to that. My system evolved it wasn't purchased as a unit. The front end further evolved when I decided it was time to either get an cartridge or retip the old one. I decided to upgrade the cartridge then I got phono stage to match the cartridge. I have no idea what will be the next upgrade, but I do have some RCA Clear Top tubes stashed. But for now I like the way my system sounds those tube are staying out of the system. If somebody else decides to make a KT120, I might go that route. Or I could upgrade the CM to a CMIII as it looks intriguing with Triode capabilities.

 

The avgs haven't changed much since last totaled. After 65 (non-Other) votes:

Sources 31% (+1% from last check)
Amps 28% (+1%)
Speakers 41% (-1%)

Feels like the 30-30-40% theme is gonna remain pretty stable.

About one-third of voters (21) prioritized Sources above baseline/balanced (which is 33%).
About one-fifth (14) prioritized Amps above balanced.
About two-thirds (43) prioritized Speakers.

The most popular choices so far:

– Balanced 33%/33%/33%
– 25% Sources/25% Amps/50% Speakers

#stats-freak .

 

Negative.

 

Source and Speakers are the most important of the 3 to me for may analog system. Amplification the least important. It also depends on the nature of the playback. Turntable/cart/phonopre require allot of money to sound good.....but you can get really good sound for much much less for a CD player or streamer/dac.

 

I like to talk with the person who invented the notion that there should be a percentage relation in cost between different components. Between four eyes.

 

First off, I enjoyed the FAQs section. Thanks for that.

 

Thanks. I've learned from bitter experience that you kinda have to have one with polls like this, because audiophiles are, uhmm.... 'different'.
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Also Negative.

When starting out, yes speakers first. If you don't like the speakers you won't like the rest. If you find a speaker that you like, and it responds well to upgraded upstream components, go for it. Better upstream components are only a waste of money if the speakers aren't up to par. Throwing expensive speakers behind a big box receiver is a waste of money.

 

Having multiple sources skews the data. For example, without the TT and phono amp my source would be 13%. Including the TT makes it 26%. If someone added R2R the source would go up again.

I excluded a bunch of stuff. Excluded an Oppo and center speaker that are only used to rip SACDs and an occasional movie night, occasional as in, less than once every couple months. Excluded the cost of a NUC in the equipment rack, and a NAS that stores all the files. Excluded all cabling. Excluded network cat6a and network switches, mainly because I don't care to think about their costs.

Currently, including sub, based on acquired used or new prices (source/amps/speakers)
25%/47%/28%

Planning to rebalance it in the next year to (including sub)
23%/43%/34%


The more I think about it 33/33/33 seems reasonable.

 

I strongly disagree. I think it should be
34.046371% speakers
21.887348% amp
21.887348% source (an amazing coincidence that it's the same as amp.
10.000231% power conditioning
The rest is cords and cables - usually purchased at Lowes.

It's hard to be precise without knowing the specific situation so I rounded them all to the nearest digit six characters from the decimal.

 

Good point, thats why I listed what I have rather then what I think it should be. I don't think there's any magic combination. But it's an interesting thread anyway.

 

Depends what the source is? Turntable would be about 50%.. CD player about 20%..Uncompressed files could be about 15% if you already own a laptop or PC and just need a DAC.

 

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