How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

Based on my experience, I would definitely start the development of a system with the speakers. It is the speaker that mostly characterizes the sonic signature of your system. That is, electronics can change how well a speaker sounds, but they don't change the speakers' basic sonic signature. So, i would first make sure that I get a speaker that has a sonic signature I like. I would then try to optimize the electronics based on the speaker I've chosen. I don't think power cables make a huge difference. Interconnects and speaker cables, on the other hand, can make an enormous difference. The above probably suggests that the speaker is the hub of the system, something that you don't want to change that frequently because the rest of the system needs to be optimized on the speaker. For this reason, I would over-invest on it. How much depends on the size of your room. Smaller rooms afford you a smaller investment. I just bought a pair of reference 3a Decapo i for my smaller room...I invested $1200, and I believe it's hard to find much better speakers for a very small environment. Of course medium and large rooms require more expensive equipment...but even here, you can reach pretty good results with a $3K investment. If you like the midrange, for instance, Piquet modified ESL 57 is very close to the best...and they cost $3K.

My logic would be,A SPEAKERS and B AMP are the most important starting point.The rest in time.

Good Luck and have fun!

If I were you I would look at a Madisound Kit or similar if you are DIY inclined as this will save a heap. Zaph Audio/ scanspeak collaboration with Madisound the ZRT is a good bet. I would look at amplifiers next ME, Pass Labs, Accuphase, ARC, VTL second hand are sometimes a bargain. I would run a decent pro PC sound card with XLR out. I use an entry level ASI5111 that EATS most CD players up to $5000. Your computer and its music library are your source. Just thinking aloud you could run a SERIOUS amp with a passive volume control if it has XLR input and out. That is what I run on my PC only I run XLR to RCA out to a flea powered hotted Rogers Cadet III [8w/rms]into ProAc super Tablette with twin 8in bass bins a side run with a custom class A Amp
Loud enough for computer near field monitoring but not a lounge room but I can use the Tannoys for that. $5000 could build you a Killer system as you only need 3-4 components assuming you have a computer. Hope this helps

In 1985,I bought my first hi-fi stereo system at a trustworthy high end local dealer. I was pretty much a novice at the time. I told the dealer my budget was $3000 and he brought me in at $2800 as follows:20% on speakers (Spica TC-50s w/custom stands);7% on Receiver(Rotel 2 x 50wpc);16% on source (Rotel CD player and a used Meridian DAC); 7% on used subwoofer system (10" passive woofer in seperate enclosure and 350w bass amp); 3.5% on speaker cables (a pr. of used MITs)and a whopping 57% on interconnects ($100 on analogs and $1400 on a Goldmund coax digital running between the CD player and the DAC). The dealer did a blind demo for me of the system with and w/o the Goldmund. There was a large improvemnt w/ the Goldmund. I have never again had a cable make such a big improvement.

In 1997 I went back to the same dealer for a new system with a $20,000 budget. This time I spent 50% on speakers (Wilson Audio Cubs w/ custom Sound Anchor stands); 37% on Sonic Frontiers tube preamp and matching 2 x 105wpc tube amp; 7.5% on source (top of the line Sony SACD/CD/DVD player); 10% on Sunfire True Subwoofer; 2% on surge protector/line conditioner and 5% on spkr cables (Audience AU/24), interconnects (Transparent and Wireworld)and XLO balanced cables between the pre and the amp.

Depends on what source you want. Assuming you are going with a cd only - spend no more than $500 there, between $1000 and $1500 on the amp (stay integrated) and between $2000 and $2500 on the speakers. Keep only enough left for speaker wire (#12 or #14, 2 conductor cable - copper - decent quality, i.e. Belden or any other major manufacturer) and decent connectors (i.e. banannas or spade connectors)- you should be able to keep this cost to much less than $100 assuming you don't have 100 feet between your amp and speakers. Do not waste $$ on expensive cable power cords or power conditioners (although a decent surge protector is not a bad idea). Pick your speakers first and get enough clean power to drive them. If you are happy without high volumes and deep low end you can do very well with your budget - particularly if you go with bookshelves. Audition your options and listen for more than a few minutes - if you can't hear the difference between two options without the salesman telling you the difference, then go with the lower cost and reapportion your budget as you go