Anyone that has not invested a great amount of time into optimizing the speaker / room interface has never heard the rest of the system do ANYWHERE near what it is capable of. Choosing the right speakers for ones' room, listening tastes, listening position and their placement will affect more things than any other component !!! We are talking about boomy bass, thin bass, "hot" treble, dull treble, pinched mids, forward mids, lack of imaging, too narrow of a sweet spot, shallow soundstage, too deep of a soundstage, too narrow of a soundstage, etc... ALL of these things are addressable via speaker selection and room interface. Selecting the right speakers and then properly placing them is half the battle. Applying the proper and NECESSARY room & acoustic treatments is another 10%. What other SINGLE aspect of the system can make or break things so drastically as the speaker to room interface ? NONE. Sean >
What's most important?
I had some friends over last night, and we started to discuss the different things that go into assembling a high quality stereo playback system. The level of disagreement, and the heated discourse, was both fun and surprising. Here is what I think, in order from most important, to least: 1).THE ROOM/SPEAKER INTERFACE- choosing the right speaker, and placing it properly in an acoustically "sound" room with a dedicated power line. If this is wrong (like a Wilson Grand Slamm in 12 x 12 x 8 room) well, then why bother with the rest. 2). THE SPEAKER/AMP INTERFACE- this is a close second, and depending on the circumstances, might even be first. If there is a REAL problem here(like low impedance/sensitivity speakers w/SET amps) nothing else will matter much. 3). THE AMP/PREAMP INTERFACE- again, this seems to be the next place where things can go really wrong in an audio system. 4) SOURCE COMPONENTS- I know, this is lower on my list than most people would like, and I don't mean to infer that source components don't affect the quality of a playback system. Of course they do. I just feel that if the above issues have not been addressed, then simply throwing a reference quality source into the system might not be the best way to maximize the potential of said system. 5). INTERCONNECTS AND SPEAKER WIRE 6). ISOLATON DEVICES, A/C CORDS, POWER CONDITIONERS, AND OTHER VARIOUS TWEAKS.....Well there it is. Again, in an ideal system, ALL of the above issues would (should) be addressed sooner or later. But how would you prioritize things, and why? Release the hounds........Robert K.