Percentage to spend on Amp and Speakers

Sorry to be so blunt, but if you have a relatively large room you can get the Maggies 1.6 ($1.5K), the Marsh A400S ($1.8K), a street DVD/CD with 24/96 output ($350), the MSB Full Nelson Link DAC ($800), and a volume control such as the MSB($400, or preferably an analog one) and have a truly audiophile system for around $5000, with true 24/96 capability ! Wire everything with Monster Cable ($200) until you can afford to upgrade the cables (north of $1K). Future upgrade: Adcom, Marsh or other good (i.e. inert) solid state linestage/pre-amp to replace the volume pot($1-1.5K),and the Sunfire self-powered subwoofer ($1.9K) for near-sonic heaven.

I guess there are many ways to achieve the same ends, and not to disrespect anyone else's opinion, but here would be my advice. Forget about formulas that tell you how to allocate your budget. Find one product which you fall in love with which gives you some of the best sound you have ever heard in a system which you have heard. Next, try to match this product with other products which mate well with the first product, but permit you to stay within budget. Those formulas are usually manufacturer or retailer attempts to justify that you purchase some expensive but poorly performing product. There really is not a high correlation between price and quality in high end audio. There are a number of inexpensive products which perform superbly, as well as many outrageously expensive products which perform either miserably or without distinction. If you use your wallet to make your decision as to what amp to get, using some formula based on what speaker you have already bought, you will be doing yourself a disservice. After appearing to overspend on speakers, you might determine that you found an inexpensive amp which mates very well with your speakers and is an exceptional performer in its price range. In this way, you can recover overspending on one product with another while still keeping yourself within budget. Of course you have to be reasonable and keep you eye on the bottom line because if you spend 80% of your budget on an amplifier, it is going to be difficult to purchase high quality companion products with only 20% of your budget. However, other than common sense budget issues, if you liberate yourself from allocation formulas, I believe you will end up with a higher quality system, but still at, or close to, budget. I also believe that you can start your search for appropriate products anywhere in the chain. It is important to assure yourself of the capability of the component. In other words, can this product completely satisfy you musically in a good system? If it is not quirky (present problems to surrounding products such as impedance mismatch, highly inefficient speakers etc.) and doesn't blow the budget, then buy it and start there. Otherwise, you might want to continue looking. Good luck.

I think we are of the same mind Rayhall. The more I think about it, the more the idea of a system price tag repulses me. Example: I am going to build a $5000 system. Is that it? Do you then look at that as a commitment, like marriage? Breakable only under extraordinary circumstance. I find very few of us in our hobby who one day announce they are going to buy a system(with a certain budget), and then go get it. People who aren't serious about the hobby do it that way. Most of our systems seem to be a living thing. Evolving and being refined over time. So I guess I go back to my original point. Buy the best thing you can, make sure you love it, and make sure of your preferences before you buy.

Thanks, Trelja. I had read your posts and I find that you and I are generally in agreement as to the approach. I would just add that with regard to the order of purchasing products there really is no required order EXCEPT wire. Here is where you can look to use the sonic characteristics of the wire utilized to complement or correct hopefully slight frequency balance problems of the previously bought products. When the rest of the system is finalized is when I would start the search for interconnects, speaker cable and power cords.

I disagree. I think the first choice should be speakers, then amp, then upstream, then cable.If you want to "voice" a system speakers have unquestionably the biggest impact. Then amps, then digital front end, then cables. When you select your speakers and your room you are voicing 75% of the system, if not more. The rest is fine tuning. The cabling is micro-tuning. Most of the tweaks are folly.