Paradigm Persona series

David Ten, the only way you start with the amplifier first is if you are in love with an amplifier that you allready own and have to then go the backwards route of finding a set of speakers that will work optimally in the room with that amp.

We start with the speaker selection first as the speakers are based on room size, output spl required, finish, physical size, asthestic design, of course sound quality.

So we start our clients with the speaker selection first then move to the electronics, then digtial.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

The problem with the typical B&M is price. I'm not going to spsnd hours of their time learning whats what only to buy everything used on AG. but if I buy new i'll have to settle. 3f instead of the 7. f228be instead of the salon2. Yes a dealer can make the more affordable system ferform at its best but it disregards the val,ue of AG and buying used.

@audiotroy   

We start with the speaker selection first as the speakers are based on room size, output spl required, finish, physical size, asthestic design, of course sound quality.

All of the above remain the same whether starting out amplifier first, or not. 

It doesn't answer the question of why speakers first (over amplification).

Do others have perspective on incontrovertible reasons / rationale on why speakers first (over amplification)?

David here is the rationale.

Loudspeaker choice is determined by a few factors:

1: Room size the larger the physical amount of air to be moved the larger the loudspeakers need to be, ie small room, small speaker, medium room medium sized loudspeaker, big room big speaker and gigantic room really big speakers. For the medium to large room a set of subwoofers may augment the mains in place of larger displacement woofers, subs pro and con are another discussion.

2: Physical look: for many people especially with a signfiigent other, the look color, size, shape, wood or painted finish may be part of that factor

3: SPL requirements: There are gigantic loudspeakers that don't play that loud for their size and smaller speakers that will play very loud, so it all matters to the design, efficiency and power handling/heat dissipation of the drive units.

4: Bass output, midrange flavoring, or treble clarity, ie loudspeaker voicing is strongly dependent of the overall design

5: Imaging abilities: some loudspeakers image better than others.

Therefore the loudspeaker has way more variables in terms of finding the right loudspeaker than the electronics do.

We will say that finding the right matching electronics to a particular set of loudspeakers will require auditioning a number of amplifiers, then cabling and source interactions until the system comes alive but again, it is much easier to schlep in an amplifier or dac then to physically move large speakers in and out of your home.

Therefore for all of these reasons we recommend that when someone is starting this jorney the loudeakers come first as the initial decision.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Agree with the "pick speakers first" advice. So much more variability with speakers and resulting in so much greater sound presentation differences with speakers versus anything else.

It takes a long time to do it right because you need to listen to a lot of different speakers, narrow it down to a couple, and then ideally listen to those couple on different styles of amplifier (tubes, solid state, hybrid, separates vs integrated) - not necessarily specific brands of amplification at this point (unless you have tons of time), styles is good enough to pick the speakers.

Once you pick the speakers, then dive into the amplification revisiting types and specific brands. By then hopefully you’ve got the speakers in-house, and easier to bring home a couple of amps to demo than transporting speakers (which I guess was already mentioned just agreeing).

All that said, often plays out differently in real life, especially if you don’t have unlimited resources to make all purchases at once. In my case, I got an unexpected fantastic deal on an integrated amp that was so much better than I could have expected for price range I knew I’d be in that I acquired integrated amp first. Although I did get to extensively hear a 1.5 hr demo of the amp with the eventual speakers that I’d end up getting before purchasing the amp, and even then I knew those speakers would probably be the ones (had probably heard 10 speakers by that point), though still ended up doing months of demo’ing of at least a dozen further speakers above and below in cost to cement the speaker choice.