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Speakers Don’t Matter As Much As We Think They Do?

When discussing how best to invest money into your system, it’s very common to hear people say, “Spend as much as you can afford on speakers, and then worry about the other gear because speakers have the largest effect on the sound.”

Now it’s never a bad idea to have good speakers and while I somewhat followed that advice early on, as my system has evolved it seems that I am not currently following that advice, and yet I am getting absolutely fantastic sound. For example as a percentage of my total system cost, my speakers cost 15%. If you include the subwoofers, that price is about 35%.

Early on I was worried I would outgrow my speakers and I’d hit their limit which would restrict sonic improvement potential as I upgraded other gear but that hasn’t been the case. With each component upgrade, things keep sounding better and better. The upper limit to speakers’ potential seems to be a lot higher than previously thought as I continue to improve upon the signal I send them and continue to improve system synergy. If you send a really high quality signal to a pair of speakers and get synergy right, they will reward you in spades and punch well above their apparent weight class.

One thing that may be working in my favor is that I’ve had these speakers since the early days of building my system so literally everything down to the last cable has been tuned to work in synergy with these speakers. Had I upgraded my speakers mid way through, I would have undone a lot of the work that went into the system in terms of synergy.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with their speakers? Does anyone have any extreme percentages in terms of speaker cost to system cost like 5% or 95% and what has been your experience?

128x128mkgus
snapsc
674 posts
 
The process all starts with a room, a budget and a "sound" you are trying to achieve.  You buy the gear you think will give you the sound you want and when you bring it home and set it up in your room, you get your answer.

Most likely, its not perfect and for most of us, the "tuning" begins...not so much with dsp (yet) but with changing wires, electronics and speakers.  Eventually we get there (hopefully).  The better the room you have, the easier it is, the less expensive it can be and the better the overall result.

Every piece matters...BUT as blindjim pointed out, the Florida audio show had pretty much all similar rooms with decent construction and decent sound, so comparison was somewhat on a same same basis.  You could get great sounding (in those rooms) budget speakers and systems from Fyne, Magnepan and SVS....and you could get better sound from speakers costing 10x more driven by gear costing 10x more also.

I only picked up system pricing from a few rooms...The Magnepan .7s ($1400)... represented 7% of the total system cost.  The Fyne 502s ($2500)  were 11% of the system cost.  The Spatial M3s ($4200) were 33% of the system cost.  The Spendor D9.2s ($11,495) were 18% of the system cost. 


By comparison...my speakers + subwoofer represent 44% of my system cost...it wasn't planned that way, it just end up that way after a lot of tuning to get the sound I wanted.
4425
861 posts
 
maybe it’s been said in this thread but it is illogical and uninformed to make statements as to how particular speakers sound unless you listen to them in your home with your electronics. this is not generally possible so one has to make an informed guess.
last thing but important. it’s said that your  system is limited to its weakest link. does anyone really think it should be the speakers? unless you use effective eq nothing on the front end will change the ‘character’ of the speakers. they have to be very good. 
nakam
38 posts
 
I have a pair of 30-yr old Sanyos -- two-way.  Cost about $100.  Great sound.  It's the wood box that makes the sound.  Particle board or plywood can't be beat.
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,565 posts
 
As long as we can avoid the interminable hell of this forum:

  My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!

...@ 187 pages, and 9.3K+ posts.....(apparently on 'life support' of some fashion.....)....😒

Speakers are our reproducers, the final instrument.
They matter.
The room they're in does as well...perhaps more....
What's 'upstream' Does....but it's a matter of taste and budget.

Beat a dead horse.
Stitch it up, blow hot air into it.
Renew the beatings.....

..and then wonder and complain about 'trolls'.....

Beats me, too....;)
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,018 posts
 
Lovin’ my Tannoy Eaton Lagacys @ $5500 retail...beautiful sound. Hehehe, only paid $3900 brand new including Atacama SLX 400 stands!! I ain’t telling.....😁 I’ll add em’ to my collection of Wharfedales and my klipsch. Driving the tannoys with a Sugden A21se pure class A single ended integrated, pure heaven.....bass from the depths of hell....ok, I stole that from Part Time Audiophile guy lol.
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