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Speakers are the first piece of the puzzle

Hello All!

This is aimed at understanding one particularly prominent posture on mapping out how to proceed in amassing a great audio outfit with speakers being the most significant ingredient, and initial purchase.

From the Audiogon pages alone, if you read between the lines, one can find that there are several approaches for how to erect an outstanding audio system as to which component should be the initial or by some accounts the largest system investment, or both everytime.

IMHO, The predominant system establishing camps are speakers first, amps first, or sources first. in deference to topologies such as panels vs cones, tubes vs. SS, analog vs. digital, as those preferences are options within options.

For the record, I’m not a card carrying member of the ‘speakers first’ organization. And see an eventually proud highly resolving great sounding system as a work in progress which begins where ever and endss when ever.


So, lets get to the lightening round…Questions:

1. why do you feel any system should begin life with speaker s the first building block AND its greatest investment?

2. which speakers were your first system build?

3. How long did you keep them?

4. were later speaker systems brought in prior to any other ‘component’ changes?

In other words, has the ‘speaker first and always’ theme been your blueprint forever, or at some later point, reveal itself as a much better plan?

tremendous gratitude for all the input.
blindjim
kennythekey
593 posts
 
Due to a lifetime of revolving systems, changing rooms, and my changing tastes in sound, it was not until more recent times that the speaker first concept finally made some sense. However, I had to find "my sound" first.

With that said, I feel that it's most important to match the speakers that work in your room with your amp. Your amp choice must also match your room as well, so why a critical component. After that, whatever you replace upstream, should be revealed by your speakers.
Kenny
wolf_garcia
6,723 posts
 
How many long time audio geeks replace their entire system all at once? I suppose after a house fire…but a lot of my gear stays through speaker changes and other incidental swap outs (cables here and there…often for the most arbitrary reasons like, "I wonder what THOSE sound like"). I imagine most people in the Active Listening crowd simply are messing around in their gear pool when they discover some item they deem worthy of tossing into what they might feel is an already well sorted mix, with good or bad results…that’s the fun part along with the music discoveries. I recently tried a well regarded speaker brand without hearing it first (few retailers sell these things), mostly to match with a new SE tube amp…FAIL…the speakers I was trying to replace stayed.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 

Exactly.  How many people start with a clean slate and a considerable budget?  The reality is that most people end up with a system, or most of one, and then start tinkering with it, one component at a time.  There's an ideal world, and the real world. 

Post removed 
erik_squires
16,317 posts
 
Well, the argument missing is the room. The room and how speaker friendly it is determines a great deal about what speakers you are going to be able to choose among.

From basic things like what size, and where you will place them come out issues about dispersion, dynamic range and then tuning.

A good sounding room plays well with a lot of speakers. A poor sounding room will demand certain types of speakers to sound good.

Whether you start with speakers, or amps, or DAC, I would spend money on room acoustics LONG before I spent any money on fancy cables of any sort.

Best,

E
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