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Speaker priority: high or low???

I have been reading the threads here for some time and following many of the discussions. During an interchange with another well known AudiogoNer we were commenting on peoples tastes and priorities. The discussion turned to speakers and he made the comment "many people on AudiogoN still think that speakers are the most important piece of the system." I was floored by his statement.
I'm not trying to start a fight with anyone and people can see what I have previously posted about this and other subjects, BUT are there still a lot of people that share this opinion?
Do you think the most important componant is your speakers? If not, what do you consider to be the most important? Why do you place so much emphasis on this componant?
128x128nrchy
beemer
444 posts
 
Most important is synergy between all the components, followed by the interaction of the room. I've found everything matters.

Paul
stehno
1,453 posts
 
The amplifier is the most important and by a wide margin. Why? Based on my experience, most amplifiers do much more than just amplify the signal. And that's almost never a good thing. In addition, it appears that most amplifiers will only excel in one or two parts (if at all) of the frequency spectrum (bass, mid, or treble) and not do so well in the other part(s).

In addition, I'm a firm believer that a great amp can made bad speakers sound very good. But never will a great pair of speakers sound good when paired with a bad amp.

I believe that there are more character differences and greater deficiencies amongst amplifiers than any other component.

-IMO
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I agree with Stehno for the most part. You need look no further than the Stereophile review of the $250 pair of B&W DM302 speakers. They hooked them up to a real high end system and could not believe how good they sounded. Any speaker regardless of how low the price, that does not have any big design flaws, will sound great hooked up to a great amplifier.

You will not get the same results connecting an $8,000 pair of B&W Nautilus 802 (or any similar speaker) to an inexpensive amplifier. Not even close.
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