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
>>07-01-11: Inna
It should be possible to match any good speakers to tube amps. If it is not then those speakers are either junk......<<

So how about those 1 ohm Apogee Scintillas?

:-)
It should be possible to match any good speakers to tube amps. If it is not then those speakers are either junk or designed for a very particular application.
Now the person who made that comment must be...

If your speaker doesn't interact at least reasonably well with your room, then what real difference does one amp make over another. If the chosen speaker doesn't work well with tube amps, then so what?
I think it is very true that the potential of very good speakers can only be realized with very good (not necessarily very expensive} amplification and sources, but the OP almost makes it sound like Harbeth HL5s are mid-fi speakers. They are actually pretty expensive. (but very good)
If the room is acoustically okay and not too big any good speaker will interact reasonably well with it. Interaction with some audiophiles' brains however is a totally different story. Especially if they have transistors instead of neurons.
Interaction with some audiophiles' brains however is a totally different story. Especially if they have transistors instead of neurons.

ROTHFLMAO