How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

With so many great sounding budget electronics and source components these days, I don't think the old "garbage in, garbage out" argument holds up as stongly as before. You have Naim, Arcam, NAD, DK, Musical Fidelity, etc making great sounding budget amps and cd players that take you 80-90 percent of the way there where the big equipment take you. I don't think the same can be said for a budget speakers compared to a high quality full range speaker, the budget speaker just won't have the range or ability to move enough air fast enough or efficiently enough to create a cohesive and convincing full range sound. My opinion is that the shortcoming of a budget speaker and the cohesive sound quality of well made full range speaker is easier to hear and is a big factor in the enjoyment of listening to reproduced music.

Hello,

I will only respond to the first part of your paragraph, when you say...'' I am just starting out in this HI-FI stuff ''

Here is my answer: RUN, RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN AND DON'T LOOK BACK !!!!

If you INSIST on spending 5K, here's a suggestion: ALL prices are ''AUDIOGON'' prices. Shop wisely and get mint for the price of rust.

AMP: 1K(or less)on a Naim Nait 5i integrated : INCREDIBLE for the money. All you need and more for this kind of budget.

Alternative choice: Arcam A 85. Nothing wrong with it - more power, more flexibility, and true usable tone controls.

Speakers: Polk LSi 15. (less than 1K) These are the most underated speakers on the planet. Forget about the Polk name not being ''audiophike enough''. Read up on them here (Audiogon) and on the web where there are many glowing reviews. I owned them once. Regret selling them too. ( And I once owned obscenely expense speakers in the past). Great overall performers, with refined sound in part due to the Ring Radiator tweeter used on some designs costing $$$$. Huge sound, extremely dynamic and lively. all you need, really.

Alternative choice: QUAD 22L. Much more body than a diminutive bookshelf, credible lows, and fit'N'finish worthy of 3 times the price gear. Good looking too.

CD Player: Shanling CDT-100 cd player. (around $ 1,000) Worth it's selling price on just sound. But of course there'es way more to this player as many of us know. Choice of tubed or solid state output, upsampling on the fly, headphone jack - and of course - a breathtaking visual centerpiece of your system - bathed in blue lights in a dimmed room.

Alternative digital choice: A good ( and less sexy )alternative would be the Denon 3910 universal player. Great sound, with killer DVD player thrown in for free.

Cables, (speaker and interconnects): Anti-cables by Paul Speltz: Very nice for the money. You could spend a lot more and get less. You probably cannot spend less and get more. No fuss, no big names, just great sound. Around $ 300.00 will get you speaker cables and two sets of interconnects.

So here it is

Naim 5i or Arcam A 85 = 900.00
Polks LSi 15 or Quad 22L = 900.00
Shanling T 100 or Denon 3910 = 1,100 (Shanling)
Cables from Paul = 300.00

If you shop wisely, you can get this nice (and it WILL be nice) system for less than $ 3,500

With the rest of the money, get $ 200 dollars woth of cd's (just to '' start the ball rolling'' with your system, and treat your significant other to a great evening out !

Your'e still $ 1,000.00 ahead...of your initial 5K. I doubt you can get better performance unless you spend quite a bit more. Then, maybe you will come to the conclusion that it is all you really need. Then forget about hi-fi and enjoy the music for awhile.

Hope you found this of some help!

I use the SpeakerSpender Dart Board to determine how much to spend on speakers. So far it has never been wrong.

A couple of speakers you can get on the used market, like here on Audiogon, that I have in two of my three two channel systems are: 1) Platinum Audio Solos (under 1 grand now) - they are small but have tremendous bass, image well, and have very good clarity. they are power hungry as they have low sensitivity but this is a kicking speaker via my Coda 250 wpc amplifier and parasound budget pre-amp (for a couple of hundred bucks the parasound pre-amp sounds much, much better than it has any right to), 2) Spica angelus (there is not much bottom end so you will need a subwoofer but voices are stunning in their clarity and imaging is excellent, 3) Triangle speakers - I have some on my two home theatre set-up and like both pairs a lot. A buddy has them on his main steroe set-up and raves about them. I have listened to them via my two channel systems and they are very good and don't cost a bunch on the used markets.

Good luck.

I have spent thousands since 1979 on speakers, i.e., Bose 601's floorstanding, Fried floorstanding, three other pairs up until 2001, Jamo D830 currently on stands; all in the search for what best reproduces classical period and modern instrument CD's. Am now trying to sell my Jamo's so I can buy a pair of B&W CM1's coupled with a Sunfire subwoofer as my listening room is less than 250 sq. ft. Associated equipment: Magnum Dynalab MD-308 integrated amp; Magnum Dynalab FT-11 Tuner; Rega Jupiter CD player; all connected with Kimber Kables. I probably spent more on my LP collection which I sold in 1990 than speakers. Since than I have spent at least $4000 on classical CD's. It is the source of your music and not the equipment that really makes a difference! Every professional musician I have talked with has confirmed this opinion, these include musicians from both the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I am not saying you should not try to find those speakers you like, I am saying make sure you spent a good percentage on your source material as well. If the music was properly recorded than it is going to sound good when it is reproduced despite your equipment. Good luck finding those speakers - I'm afraid it is a process more than a percentage!