Most Common Gear-Matching Mistakes?


I've finally come full circle in assembling a system
that I am pretty happy with. All along, though, I've
been wary of pairing up equipment that may not match well with another link in my system.

What are some of the big mistakes that hi fi enthusiasts
make when assembling a system? And I don't mean choosing
a cheap piece of gear, or a poorly-performing brand. Rather
I'm talking about poor synergies between equipment.

Just want to become better informed, because I know it's
just a matter of time before the upgrade bug bites.
128x128golfrok
Most folks don't take impedance matching seriously. It's just as important,if not more, than anything else.
As an example to Philfreak's responce:
SET with 2Ohm speaker load for instance...

My example is more psychological:
Forcing yourself to like the sound due to the price paid...
To elaborate a little on what Philefreak stated: I believe he's talking about the impediance match between pre-amps and amps (primarily), since source component electrical charachteristics are pretty standardized. But there's more than just impediance. In an extreme example, a passive preamp will work better into an amp with higher input impediance, but it is of paramount importance to also keep the capacitance of the interconnects as low as possible in this case.

You also must match the amp to the speaker correctly. The efficiency of the speaker is a good driver in the choice for SS vs tube vs low powered SET amps. Without the proper power to efficiency you will lose dynamics and low level details.

But the one overriding design goal that I've found to be true is to find the most neutral pieces of equipment possible. It's usually best to not try and compensate for a bright speaker by getting an overly warm or rolled off amp, or a dark speaker by using silver wire.

This kind of "matching" doesn't bring you to neutrality, since you will be losing something at each stage. It can be used as a stop gap measure while you're searching for balance, but ultimately it doesn't satisfy for long.

Enjoy,
Bob