Speakers are the most important component.
they will change the sound from great to amazing to wow this is bad in the first 5 months.
Amps matter, pre’s matter, source’s matter.
the biggest change in sound is speakers.
Audition as mnay as u can, look for what you want to hear,
bass, midrange, highs, or if you like more highs, or better midrange, deeper bass,
only you can decide what you like.
It took me a long time to find my goosebumps on arms, neck and the epiphany and gratifying feeling of “this is my sound”
tookme 30+ years to get where I’m at, and I’m happy as a pig in........you get the picture.
Enjoy the hunt and demo’ing a lot.
Call and talk to Roger Sanders,.........
with all the amazing maps, class A, A/AB, D, H etc etc
it’s hard to beat a wicked class A/B amp with almost limitless power, and the headroom.
His warranty is the best, and you talk directly with the owner if any issues arise.
P.s. tell Roger, Declan sent you. |
“Speakers don’t matter as much as we think they do…”,.
They don’t matter any less either. They merely deserve the same amount of respect all of the other components in the arrangement should receive, but regularly not the lions share.
I firmly believe as I stated previously so long as an assignment, or verdict on any speaker’s prowess contains subjective evaluation (s) there can be no absolute determination of true performance (better, or best) regardless their cost, style, or design topology.
the one point a particular speaker can make is on the bandwidth itself and how much of it is revealed, i.e., speaker a being full range can develop more range than speaker B which is a restrickded range unit.
as for speakers making the greatest impact on the presentation I’d offer change the amplifier topology from SS to Tubes and then tell me things have not significantly changed.
albeit, many aspects of a system alter the sound and presentation, not merely the speakers.
Anyone in this devotion for anytime at all will see it does not take ‘world beater’ uber priced transducers to knock you off your seat with their presentation, now and again.
I strongly advise anyone to allow good sense lead the way and not some mysteriously arranged pie in the sky chart which denotes how much money goes where, if an audio rig is to be on balance.
Acquire a quality signal, maintain that signal’s integrity and match closely the power demands of the speaker with an amp or amps, address the room acoustics as is feasable , and many speakers will open the doors to excellent listening sessions without the need for extravagant expense at the end of the signal path.
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Wednesday I listened to a setup I’d never recommend and was stunned at how good the sound was. The speakers were Wilson Sabrinas, in a large room, powered by a Parasound integrated amp. These are speakers that will benefit from the very best electronics from Ayre, Spectral, Boulder. Speakers have by far the hardest job - converting varying voltages to sound waves. They benefit from the obsession to detail and decades of experience the best have to offer.
Every part of a system matters, but given the choice, I’d start with the smallest floor standers from the best manufacturer every time.
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Speakers are the most important component. Period.
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I find that speakers are the “most important” part of an audio system, but disagree that they should be the most expensive part. Mine are $6000, about 12% of my total system, and I believe that doubling or tripling the speaker investment will have little effect on total sound quality. Using Goldenear Triton One.R with PassLabs/Cary/EAR electronics and high quality DAC, streaming, and LP gear.
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How much should the paint cost in a painting?
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Years ago my big living room system evolved, starting with speakers I ended up hating (mid- to low-end Infinity's), then getting speakers that pleased me enormously (Vandersteen 4s). Flash forward 25 years and the same process started playing out in a home office desktop system (nearfield), where I've had 4 or 5 different speakers. Only when the 4th landed (ATC SCM12 Pro's) did it all come together. From all this I conclude that when I finally got a pair of speakers that really matters, that gets it done sonically, 2 things have happened: - I chose a speaker whose tuning, construction, and design please me more than others (tuning being the most important); and
- That speaker worked best with my room of all the other choices
I wish it were as simple as jonesing over this or that speaker, buying & installing it, and voila! Great Sound! But it's never that simple. |
I have $20K+ in electronics and cables (full Ayre stack plus a very modest turntable....for now) and $5K in speakers (Vandersteen 3A Sigs). So I'm defintely on the wrong side of commonly accepted wisdom. I adore my system, and since I got the speakers first I was able to witness how each new bit of electronics improved my sound. As an added bonus, I feel like I can go far up the Vandersteen line--perhaps not as far as the 7--and not need to touch a thing on my front end.
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Let’s drop all the talk about cost of speakers as compared to the rest of the system let’s talk about sound. Here is my experience in being an Audiophile for 40 years. Speakers have the greatest impact on the system.
In the grand scheme to get a great system all things need to be right, the table, cartridge, digital source, preamp/amp, cables, speakers, and the room. But given all else what single item is going to ruin the sound most dramatically if entirely done wrong? The speaker! Don’t care how great everything else is.Swap a full size electrostatic with computer speakers and the change in the sound will be huge. Any other single item swapped will be easily heard but not at the magnitude of the speaker swap.
On the subject of expense, when it comes to the speaker sound, money has no bearing. Many inexpensive speakers sound wonderful given all the other stuff is right. In this hobby big money spent looks pretty but does not guarantee the best sound. |
@emailists>
How much should the paint cost in a painting?
Blindjim>
Ask ‘Tooloose ta trek’.
@Fordste>
Many inexpensive speakers sound wonderful given all the other stuff is right. In this hobby big money spent looks pretty but does not guarantee the best sound.
Blindjim>
+1
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Just reacting to an old thread I guess.
I had to start from scratch 4 years ago and chose the speakers first: Fyne 502 based purely on reviews/music preferences/room. Today they represent 12,5% of total investment. By far costlier is the power amp, at a whopping 50%.
I believe that I have achieved a state of the art system, anno 2003 (o; at much less than half of original asking price. It sounds ok for my music/room/ears
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Just my thought on your post. I do think speakers are the most important element in a system. Drivers especially.
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Transducers are the only devices that change energy from one form to another. Most home systems have two of these, speakers and phono cartridges. Loudspeaker/cartridge making requires understanding a full array of disciplines including materials science, magnetics, acoustics and electronics. A true physics puzzle. Designing/building a quantity of "A level" speakers is not something one takes on casually. The cost of manufacturing everything yourself is so high that few can do it. Most transducer makers today are kit builders, focusing on something the end user values beyond sonic virtue (like cosmetics). There are bargains (where value is far greater than cost) at all levels of the business, from inexpensive to expensive. These bargains always punch above their weight with any set of electronics, achieving extreme performance levels only when everything in the chain is extremely good.
Brad
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Danny of GR Research fame has a YouTube channel, in which he upgrades lots of speaker XOs. It is amazing how poor the XOs are of many of the well known speaker companies. He offers upgrade kits as well as his own speaker designs
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It's not just a matter of louder volume or bass: big speakers just sound better than little ones. When it comes to speakers, size does matter. Big speakers clobber little ones in two ways: they can play louder and make more bass.
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you get on that price scale, even if you are only listening to Spotify and watching Youtube videos. In general, the most expensive speakers are only worth it if you are working in audio production and listening to extremely high-quality media. site
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The DAC is the most important in a system period
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