2. amps-preamps
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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
schubert
7,386 posts
 
In 40 years in audio I've owned at least a hunded pairs of speakers and probaly almost as many amps.
My present Silverline Preludes sound great with my $500 Sophia Baby Electric but fabulous with mt sons 10K Lamm.
Amp first.
Actually preamp first but you didn't ask that.
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I agree with Mofimadness and Elizabeth - once again, if you don't like the sound of your speakers, you won't like the sound of your system. It really is that simple, folks. This is of course not to say that the rest is unimportant, the amp must be matched to the speakers for sure, but merely to say that nothing is as important as the speakers.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
Well executed active speakers the way to go. They have the potential to sound better than their passive counterparts and make the amp vs. speaker question moot.
jallen
502 posts
 
A speaker is merely the end of the chain. In the past I had speakers, then looked for an amp. Now I bought the amp first and am auditioning speakers to mate with it. Both approaches can work if you are patient enough. Trust your ears...jallen
inna
7,296 posts
 
I would say that unless one must use low power SET amp, speakers first. However, eventually yes if you want to bring the most out of your speakers the amp together with pre-amp will cost more than the speakers, perhaps much more; double the price is quite realistic and I think reasonable.
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