SPeakers 90% of your sound

You can safely say that speakers display more variation in sound character from one brand/type to the next than any other component. It could thus be argued that they affect the sound of the system more than any other. This is not, however, the same thing as saying they are more important than other components or that one should spend 90% of one's budget on the speakers. To me, it says that speakers are the least perfected part of the reproduction chain. In general, as a component type reaches further toward perfection, the variations between brands tend to diminish. Speakers are still the furthest away from this convergence.

Speakers, in general, are the most imperfect link in the chain. How many of you would put up with 5% distortion in your electronics? Not me, that's for sure. Yet, we do this *every* time we listen to our speakers. The physical transformation from electrical energy to mechanical energy is the devil.

IMHO, the upstream devices (CD/DVD-A/SACD, amps, preamps, cables, etc.) are all pretty good in comparison. The sound differences between a $500 amp and a $5,000 amp is very small when compared to the differences between $500 speakers and $5,000 speakers.

My recommendation? Buy the best sounding speakers you can afford and then spend most of the rest of your audio dollars on very high quality source materials (CD/DVD-A/SACD). The rest of the chain is not nearly as important and suffers from the law of diminishing returns very quickly.

I also disagree that Speakers weights 90% in a system.
Assume the room doesn't change, it's all about system matching. In my opinon, I think the speaker and amp needs to be match before you can make your claim about what's the most important.

I'm a source sort of guy, but then, I own a Linn LP12 Lingo.

Nothing downstream can remove distortion or put back information that was never there in the first place. I've upgraded sources and electronics a few times, but speakers only once. Never had any difficulty noticing an improvement.

I just hate spending good money on sidegrades. When changes to a system don't seem to make much difference, IMHO you're not making a big enough change or you're changing the wrong thing.

Speakers and their interactions with room and system could fill a book. They offer very different takes on the music. When is one take better ? When it lets the music touch me more.

$0.02

Twl: Where do you live (not an address--I'm not sending a henchman) just a zip code--or even a state. I'd like you to hear a really well designed room. I think it would change your mind. No words will--you have to hear it. It really is astounding what a room can do (soundwise that is--not performance wise--a bad one note performer will still be a poor performer, but acoustically he'll sound a lot better)