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
stickman451
553 posts
 
I agree, in the extreme amps are impacted by the size of the room and more obviously the speaker load/characteristics. You probably wouldn't go with a flea powered SET amp if your room was 25 x 35 for example, not unless of course your were using something like a KHorn which has a sensitivity of 104 db...even then, I would want more than a couple of watts...

My limited experience has been that very sensitive speakers seem to do best with lower or moderately powered amps, whether tube or SS. Tougher loads, like a Magnepan panel speaker are much happier with as much power as you can throw at them; think 500 watt SS or BIG tube amps..

I stand by my earlier points in this thread. To me it makes little sense to choose an amp first; ultimately the choice of speaker has the greatest impact on the overall tonality of the music, the type and condition of the sound stage, and the overall response you get in a particular room.

Find a speaker you like/love and then do some hunting until you can find the very best amp that matches well with the speaker (and its particular design characteristics) and one that is powerful enough to drive the speaker to acceptable sound pressure levels in your room.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Stickman451 nailed it. Good job.

Pay attention orifice10.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,311 posts
 
YEs, good job Stickman!

Speaker/room interactions and resulting sound are highly variable and not easy to predict until you try.

A room may also dictate a more powerful amp (or more efficient speakers) but that is a relationship that is more predictable and hence lower risk.

Always address your highest risk items first. That's a basic best practice of modern design that all good designers are familiar with.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 
When two people are rolling in the mud in the gutter; it's impossible to tell which one is the low life.
taters
1,149 posts
 
From my own experience I would rather own a 2000.00 pair of speakers with a 10k amp then the other way around. I am currently running a front-end setup including TT, phone-pre-pre and amp that cost 19k. The speakers cost around 6k. I was recently at a show where some of the speakers cost over 50k a pair. My modest system sounded better than most of these expensive systems. Audio is really about system matching than anything else. I haven't heard too many really expensive systems that sounded good. I have heard a lot of matched systems that sounded great.
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