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
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,180 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.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
If you check the closest mirror orifice10, the answer will be crystal clear.

LOL
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Taters, it sounds like you have a match up that will give you the biggest bang for the buck. Only the "connoisseur's" of good sound realize that when it comes to speakers, "less is more"; meaning a simple design with high quality crossover and drivers.

The music is in the grooves and only a stellar well tuned rig can extract it. This means the bulk of the money has to be spent "upstream". Saying one can send "jive" to the worlds best speakers and they will translate it to music is "jive".

The music leaves the grooves, goes through the cartridge on to the pre and then to the amp. If it's "jive" before it gets to the speakers, it's going to be "jive" coming out of the speakers.
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