How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

The harsh reality is that you can put $5000 speakers in a room next to $500 speakers and the $500 may actually sound better. The room itself plays a critical part in the sound. You don't hear specs and the sound you hear will not be flat due to room acoustics. What you hear in the store will sound nothing like what the speaker sounds like in your home.

I strongly recommend buying a receiver/processor with Audyssey eq built in. It will improve your sound more than spending twice on your speakers, especially if you have a separate subwoofer.

Ignore all the hype on special cables and power filters...don't even think about buying monster cables. Unless you have exceptional ears (and a far larger budget), you will hear absolutely no difference. Just buy cables from MonoPrice and maybe a surge suppressor from home depot.

Finally, since you are sort of new to all this, keep your eyes open for used equipment...especially speakers because they are often hard or a pain to box and ship. Check your local craigslist or do ebay searches for speakers based on distance to your home. Of course, you have to be careful..some of that stuff is way overpriced, but you can absolutely find real bargains if you are patient.

As a general rule..if something is sold in any of the big box stores (e.g. best buy, Walmart,...), don't buy it. They just don't carry any of the good gear. Don't buy all the Bose hype and I've already commented on Monster Cables, etc.

First time poster pondering the same questions as we prepare to replace our 15 year old components and 25 year old speakers. In discussing building with the intent/expectation of future upgrades the one thing I haven't seen discussed is advancements in technology.

Is speaker technology more mature than all the electronics driving them? Technology has left our Pro Logic receiver and tube TV behind but I'm not so sure the same can be said for the Infinity RS7s.

We'll be upgrading speakers to a matched set of surround speakers. So all things being equal, will money spent on good speakers today be compatible/adaptable to advances in the components driving them or will today's speakers be tomorrow's Pro Logic dinosaurs?

No one can afford the perfect speaker; therefore you must determine which is the best speaker for you. You can do this be selecting 5 of your favorite CD's and audition as many different speakers as you can. This will narrow the kind of sound you like best. While the best amps sound similar, the best speakers sound as different as night and day.

The proper question should be, "Which speaker do you spend anything on?". The very best speakers are as different as night and day. Choose five of your favorite CD's and audition as many speakers as you can. Once you determine wich sound you like best you can began to spend money. Top amps sound quite similar; the big question is solid state or tube. Audition, audition, audition.

Oh well, this thread started exactly 8 years ago !

Dollar value have changed... $5K in today's value would be almost $10K

I think the most difficult part is STICKING to your original budget plan :O)

Yes, I have failed on this, too.

I plan to spend 40% on speaker, 30% on solid amp (with most power I can get), and all the others for 30%.

But my speaker department is demanding more budget.
(Every time I listen to new speakers, budget goes up)

I kept the amps and other components under control,(thanks to AudiogoN) but the speaker budget has gone up 50%..Alas...