Speakers Don’t Matter As Much As We Think They Do?
When discussing how best to invest money into your system, it’s very common to hear people say, “Spend as much as you can afford on speakers, and then worry about the other gear because speakers have the largest effect on the sound.”
Now it’s never a bad idea to have good speakers and while I somewhat followed that advice early on, as my system has evolved it seems that I am not currently following that advice, and yet I am getting absolutely fantastic sound. For example as a percentage of my total system cost, my speakers cost 15%. If you include the subwoofers, that price is about 35%.
Early on I was worried I would outgrow my speakers and I’d hit their limit which would restrict sonic improvement potential as I upgraded other gear but that hasn’t been the case. With each component upgrade, things keep sounding better and better. The upper limit to speakers’ potential seems to be a lot higher than previously thought as I continue to improve upon the signal I send them and continue to improve system synergy. If you send a really high quality signal to a pair of speakers and get synergy right, they will reward you in spades and punch well above their apparent weight class.
One thing that may be working in my favor is that I’ve had these speakers since the early days of building my system so literally everything down to the last cable has been tuned to work in synergy with these speakers. Had I upgraded my speakers mid way through, I would have undone a lot of the work that went into the system in terms of synergy.
Has anyone else had a similar experience with their speakers? Does anyone have any extreme percentages in terms of speaker cost to system cost like 5% or 95% and what has been your experience?
erik_squires7,833 posts02-15-2020 9:56am"I do believe that being happy with any speaker is the room. Too often listeners hear a great experience at a dealer, come home, don’t have it, and then are sold power cables, amps, etc, to try and reach the nirvana which was always the room to begin with. A good room is transformative, and can make a lot of speakers sound really great. A mediocre or poor sounding room requires you to chase synergy forever...." That's been my experience as well. |
@åhickamore> Bottom line: Speakers make the biggest difference and the rule of thumb is that speakers should cost 2x the cost of amp and preamp combined. OP's experience seems atypical to me. blindjim> that plan sounds very, very, dated. Mind telling us exactly where you found this mandate for allocating funds when building a system? this means in just one eX. a $10K line stage + a pr of $25K mono blocks should have a pr of $70K speakers? good luck with that approach as ! its application likely pertains to the lowest percentile of this past times enthusiasts whose pockets can afford what ever, when ever tiers of merchandise. real world EXP has shown me quite the opposite in various systems owned and operating in different folks homes I’ve visited. in fact one note on audio performance was being reinforced in exhibition after exhibition at the Fla Audio Expo this year which was put the majority of the funds in front of your speakers and by a wide margin of the dealer’s and or presentors on hand. the vitus 030 Integrated demo ($55K) had it driving a pr of $22K speakers imported from lithowania gershman’s Grand Avant Gard $14K per pr were being pushed by VAC statement pre and a pr of VAC Statement 450s. the VAC triad easily surpasses the Gershman’s allocation. this arrangement was repeated with regularity regardless the loudspeakers on display with very few exceptions. implying one must double funding for speakerage comensurate with the power train’s total investment, is some speaker makers idealistic or at least quite ambitious perspective. in fact, the digital domain and the loudspeaker technological highway seems to be the foremost avenues which are demonstrating routine and regular advancements, and as such wisdom there would not be to trade in the first borne or get a second mortgage for speakers as their SOTA is a swiftly moving target. prudence likely says to provide ABC speakers with the best signal and electronic control one can, rather than have a superbly capable loudspeaker recreating a mediocre or even pedestriann signal and or one whose voltage or current demands have not been accutely addressed or fully optimized. another note on the speaker first at all costs notion is thier plain old practicality of system integration. speakers are often large, heavy and affected by more variables than are its upstream counterparts than just power demands. It is usually easier to swap in and out amps than it is to regularly swap in and out the speakers themselves. A pr of speakers presence alone can ordain a particular esthetic needs to be evident for them to just be in the system and might negate another brand whose fashion or appearance can not be provided albeit their performance could be better than the more attractive units currently in residence. |
I started off with a JVC receiver and a Sony 300 disc player that I kept on shuffle most of the time. Infinity bookshelf speakers completed the system. I new nothing about synergy, tubes vs SS, cables room acoustics, etc. Walked into a high end stereo vendor one day and left with a pair of PSB Alphas and a copy of Robert Harley's Complete Guide to High-End Audio, 3rd Edition. I'm now playing around with speaker position and room acoustics. Seems to me I could have started anywhere on the components list, i.e. preamp, speakers, source, and ended up where I am now, playing with diffusers, dampers & locations. It's all been fun and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I've concluded that Synergy=(trial + error)/Time. |
Speakers are the most important part of a system. They will determine the over all sound and image capability of the system but it comes down more to speaker type. Going from one dynamic tower speaker to another in around the same price range does not get you very far. People who keep jumping from one loudspeaker to another are simply not entertained by what they are hearing. You always have to move up market but not necessarily all that far and there are serious values out there. My absolute favorite loudspeakers cost $50K. It boggles my mind why anyone would pay $250K for a Wilson. If I were given a pair I would sell them immediately. I have had the same loudspeakers for about 20 years and will keep them until I can go for the $50K versions. IMHO they are better than anything out there other than the $50K ones. They present me with music the way I want to hear it. Other speakers do not. Not they they are not fine speakers. They are just not for me. So perhaps the problem is that many people do not really know what they want to hear and keep searching. To them I have to say, listen to live music, acoustic live music, the real instruments. Classical, Jazz and folk. If a system can fool you into thinking you are at one of those venues it will play electrified R+R just fine. |
