How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

11 years later, hows it working out? My last speaker purchase was under $100. Not too long ago I spent a whopping $330 on Forte IIs. If I hit the lotto, who knows?

don't you just shop until you find the least expensive speakers that you truly love?

most speakers are overhyped and over priced!

Audiolabyrinth, I wish I could weigh in on your last post, but cannot because I have no data except some limited anecdotal experiences. But my gut tells me you're right.

As general matter, I think hype and puffing contribute a considersable amount to the cost of audio. I recently posted some comments about what I perceive to be hype and puffing regarding the ARC line, particularly with respect to some of its newest and latest additions.

For example, ARC just released the new Ref 10 linestage carrying an MSRP of $30K. Yet just last year or so, ARC released a limited addition Ref Anniversay 40, carrying a MSRP of $25K that was supposed to be the "be all-end all" of line stages.

Now here's a laugh. ARC says that it learned a lot about new technologies and so forth from the Ref 40 and upgraded its Ref 5 linestage to incorporate many of these new technologies. The upgraded Ref 5 SE is hyped to be 85+% of the Ref 40, all for half the Ref 40's MSRP price. I'll let you know. I'm sending my Ref 5 to the factory next week for the SE upgrade for the "ridiculously" low cost of $2500.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm a big time ARC fan, but how many times can the newest product be "in another league" compared to its predecessor?? Sooner or later they're gonna run out of leagues.

Ok, back to this thread -- speakers. Speaker costs are all over the place. Sometimes there's a correlation of cost to quality, but not always.

Here's another laugh that almost resulted in the tar and feathering of the editors of a couple of well recognized audio magazines. My speakers, the Paradigm Signature 8 v3, were hyped by the editors of these mags to be the best speakers of 2011 and #7 in the line-up of best speakers of all time. Owners of Wilsons, Magicos and the like exploded. The S8s have a MSRP of $9k, compared to Magico Q5s having a MSRP of over $150+K. Forget Wilsons, they're a bargain compared to top of the line Magicos.

How can this possibly be??? Read some of my other posts --it's all about Econ 101 (economies of scale, volume sales, elimination of middlemen, in-house R&D, verticle integration, etc), hype, puffing and snobbery.

In the meantime, I may look like the poor cousin to many of my audiophile colleagues -- but guess what, I have a kick ass system.

So, my advice to the OP (if still relevant) and others is be smart consumers. Spending more bucks doesn't necessarily correlate to better or best gear.

Well that's the end of my Friday night audiophile ruminations.

Bruce

IMO:
1) Speakers contribute more to the character of a system than do the other components (maybe exception = cartridges).

2) Amplifier technology is much more mature than digital front end technology. A quality amp will please for many years. Digital is outdated much more quickly.

3) A budding audio hobbiest may not be atuned to his/her preferences regarding characteristics of a system.


Given the above and a budget of 5K, one reasonable suggestion might be to set 30-40% of budget aside for speakers. Split the remainder to an integrated amp ~30%, digital front end ~30% (maybe less depending on type}, and the remaining 10% for cables. Purchase the amp, front end, cables and a lower budget pair of speakers (eg. B&W685 at $650 retail) setting the remaining funds aside for future speaker purchase. Enjoy this system while exploring the speaker market and identifying the system character that most pleases. Once identified, upgrade speakers to satisfy. There are simply to many quality 1.5 - 2K speaker systems to judge, all sounding quite different. In putting this system together, remember that the room is a most important component and interacts with speakers to a great extent.