Why do folks spend more on electronics than on speakers?

here is some perspective 40 years professional experience

speakers determine the overall level of what you can  acchieve

the electronics and source will derive what the speakers are capable of

great speakers can not compensate for difficiencies elsewhere

long story short the electronics preserve the integrity of the signal the better you feed the speakers the better the sound from those loudspeakers

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect nj

Because every upstream upgrade I make reveals itself in my modestly priced speakers (Ohm Walsh 2000 with a pair of Vanderstein 2Wq subs).  Speakers I would upgrade to that I believe would be a significant upgrade cost more than I can afford.  Electronics and cable upgrades I can manage, for the most part.

@nyev Not necessarily the speakers that are too mid-forward. Lot's of recordings are and the better equipment you have the more you may hear this.

$$$$$ is not the determining factor. 

Had a pair of $15K QLN, sent them back and kept the $5K QLN Sonora's.

Just plugged in a pair of $1700.00 GoldenEar BRX into my main system and love them. Love the sound stage, depth, detail. Yep made in China and have a great Crossover. Will the replace the QLN Sonora, not sure yet but they will be in one of my systems. 

Great quality and sound is no indicative of the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ you spend if the speakers are matched to your system. 

AH Qualiton X200, Simaudio 280D, SPL Phonos Voltair, Bel Canto e.One CD3T, REL Tzero x 2. Clearaudio Concept DC, Nagaoka MP 500 Cart, Throens TD145 MP200, LeJonklou Giao 2. All Signal Audio Referance Speaker, Interconnect and Power cables. Heed Elixer for week day listening. QLN Sonara, Raven Audio CeLest Towers (wonderful 2.5 way) and now GoldenEar BRX stand mounters. 

Less than most more than many $$ wise and sounds sounds simply wonderful. 

Thank you all for the great comments. This has been a very informative dialogue. I can understand the source first mentality and it does make sense in a way but then one is just pushing the limited factor down to the transducers. The argument for that seems to be, great speakers are cheaper than great electronics; not sure about this personally. I think most would agree that all the parts of the chain are important.

I have always been speakers first because they are so obviously different in sound that it is easier to land on a preference. Also, the space issue. E.g. choosing a speaker appropriate to one's listening environment. Another reason I like the speakers first approach is, if on a budget, it is more fun to me to over spend on speakers and then level up the rest of the system over time. Each new addition brings more out of the speakers and one feels real progress; IMHO. The inverse of this would be, I have awesome gear and then drop in the right speaker and I am done. For some, that might be more appealing but I like the journey as much as the destination.

What sparked this topic in my mind was when I saw some systems in the high four to low five digit range and way their resources were allocated. I wondered about the decision to go something like 80/20 pre/power over speakers. I have literally seen where someone has $10K+ in McIntosh or PS Audio driving a $1K-2K pair of speakers and I thought it odd. I get when you get to a certain level of speakers it’s hard to move up, cost vs performance wise, and spending on electronics makes more sense; I’m kind of there myself. What I don’t get is if the whole system budget is like $15K and someone spends 10%-20% of it on speakers. Are speakers in this price range that good? Maybe that should have been the question all along.