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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
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,804 posts
 
Speakers and amps are not a chicken and egg thing. They have to work together.

http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/paradigm_paper2.html

If the two do not work together no amount of cash will fix it.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Garbage out = garbage out.
jafox
1,456 posts
 
Good signal anywhere ==> Garbage component any where ==> Garbage out

I am another who feels that it is all about the room and thus what speakers will match with it. What walls are available, corners, odd room shapes, furnishings, etc. will dictate what speakers are possible. And then the buyer has to choose which priorities are highest for the final speaker.

Finding a matching amp is really not all that difficult as there are so many great amps out there to handle high or low efficiency speakers, or those that require high current output, etc. Sadly, the same can not be said for preamps...only a handful have cut it for me in 30 years.
mrdecibel
3,063 posts
 
If the question is what to shop for first, I would have to say the speakers, with the consideration to the room. Once the speaker has been selected, shop for an amp to properly drive it. Of course, it can be, and is, more complex than that, but that has been my experience.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 
Regardless what's said here, your experiments told you what you need to know. A boss amp will sound good, even with midfi speakers, while a midfi amp will sound like a midfi amp; even with the best speakers.
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