Amp more important than speakers?


The common wisdom seems to be the opposite (at least from speaker makers), but I have tried the many speakers that have come thru my house on lesser amps or my midfi A/V receiver and something was always very wrong, and things often sounded worse than cheap speakers.
On the other hand, I have tried many humble speakers on my my really good amps (& source) and heard really fine results.

Recently I tried my Harbeth SHL5s (& previously my Aerial 10Ts, Piega P10s, and others) on the receiver or even my Onkyo A9555 (which is nice with my 1985 Ohm Walsh 4s, which I consider mid-fi), and the 3 high end speakers sounded boomy, bland, opaque.

But when I tried even really cheap speakers on my main setup (Edge NL12.1 w/tube preamp) I got very nice results
(old Celestion SL6s, little Jensen midfi speakers).

So I don't think it's a waste of resources to get great amplification and sources even for more humble speakers.
My Harbeth SHL5s *really* benefit from amps & sources that are far more expensive than the Harbeths.

Once I had Aerial 10Ts that sounded like new speakers with vocals to die for when I drove them with a Pass X350 to replace an Aragon 8008.

Oh well, thanks for reading my rambling thoughts here...

So I think I would avoid pairing good speakers with lesser amps,
rgs92
a great speaker with a budget amp will give better results than a great amp with budget speaker ....

regards,
Plato,

Onkyo as a brand is highly underrated , they are not bad at all, so i'm not suprised..

regards,
I have also noticed people starting out getting their first half decent system always believe the speakers are all important and where all the money should be spent. I started that way. Friends who listen to my rig often say 'we need some decent speakers too'. I am now in the camp that the amp is most crucial and the heart of the system. The amp is my "priority amongst essentials"..... err ... as long as you combine it with a great source and great speakers :)
Weseixas, I agree, I think some of the Onkyo amps/receivers sound quite good, which is what prompted me to put it in the system in the first place and now I'm glad I did.

I also want to say that my slant is that the loudspeaker should be matched to the room first and then the proper amp to drive that speaker in its intended acoustic environment can be sought (based on the speaker load, sensitivity, and how loud the owner wants to play his/her music in the particular room).