Average Price Spent for Speakers

Your questions is wide open to many interpretations. I have been in this game for only 8 months. I do not consider myself an audiophile. I am, however, a musician with a music degree and a music lover. I decided I was going to go on e-bay and audiogon to put together a budget system, listen awhile and decide what I really wanted to spend money on. I've bought 3 amps, 2 sets of speakers, 2 tuners and 3 CD players. I will buy one unit, then another, then sell the first. That way I get a lot of diversity while training my ear. I have listened to 100's of different speakers and amp combinations at stereo shops. You name the speaker, I've probably listened to it. What I have found is that at my level of expertise, it is very difficult to hear the difference between budget gear and high dollar gear. So, for the time being I have decided to spend very little money and enjoy. What I settled on is:

PSB Image 2 speakers - $299
NAD 320BEE integrated amp - $299
NAD 3155 CD - $92
NAD 4150 Tuner - $37
AudioQuest Interconnects - $68
14 Gauge speaker wire - $20

That's $815 for everything and I am enjoying the music a great deal. I listen for hours and have the stereo on most of the time when I'm not actually listening. I plan on selling the CD and Tuner and replacing it with a more contemporary set from NAD, strictly for the remote capability. That will bring the total cost of my system to about the $1,100 mark. I will listen to this system for quite some time.

I ended up with this system because of advice from this site. While audiogon doesn't have a lot of discussion about budget gear, the advice you do get is excellent. The discussions about high end (and priced) gear is also excellent and very informing.

I'm am in the process of developing my sense of what I want. When the time comes to upgrade, I will be going to local shops. I know I'll pay more, but without them I believe stereo will fall by the wayside. They need our support.

Cripes! Where did all that come from. The simple answer is you don't need to spend a lot of money, and probably shouldn't, at first.

As I type this and listen to contemporary Norwegian Folk Music, I am in a kind of sonic Vahalla. And that for $815.

God Dag!

Speakers = 28% of my total system cost (paid close to $2k used).

How to determine what to spend? Auditioned it, liked it and double checked with my bank account, looked do-able with enough to get everything else that I needed for the rest of the system, then bought it.

Speakers are very important and since they can have such a visual impact that elegance gets them into the living room and this can make up for all of the components that one's spouse will only...tolerate. this is one reason that B&W Nautilus can cause marital problems.

I took mine to a local high-end shop and showed her the KEF 207s, having first explained to the (female) salesperson that we would be buying the somewhat smaller 205s. So, by the end of the session we agreed that the 207s sounded better but the 205s would 'look better' so I got what I wanted. Of course, I bought my speakers here on Audiogon but I still dropped lots of money on a Marantz DVD player and I bought some neat stereo stuff from this salesperson so she was more than happy to help out.

How much did I spend? I bought my 205s for about $5,000.00 while they retail for about 30-40% more.

Regarding the last part of your question, non-audiophiles pay well under $500 for their speakers (as do many audiophiles -- please don't misinterpret) and their choice is based on what they hear in the Best Buy, or equivalent, sound room. Folks either look for bass (larger speakers) or compact size (and, does it match the decor). Folks who are both interested in getting better gear and who understand their own lack of knowledge tend to go to the home theatre installers to ask for advice -- these folks tend to spend more and usually end up with something pretty decent. That's my experience. I'd be interested to hear other viewpoints.

My speakers approach roughly 30-40% of my total system costs. I'd rather upgrade components than speakers so I tend to buy higher quality (IMO) speakers first -- they are just too darned difficult to constantly audition in your home and then go through the sell/buy cycle over and over again.

The determining factor in how much I spent was the speakers I wanted to buy. My new speakers are about $16,000 retail. I had a short list of speakers that I was interested in, including:
Sony SS-M9ES
B&W Signature 30's
Kharma Ceramique 1.0
Wilson Audio Watt/Puppies.
After I did my homework The Kharma's were number one on the list. So I bought them.
I think most peoples speakers are in the $100-250 range.