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.
deborah1

Showing 1 response by sedond

while i agree that speaker/room interface is critical, as far as how much one *spends* on their set-up's individual components being important, i tink it has a lot to do w/what one's main source is. if cd is the main source, then i think one should devote their money on getting the best pre-amp possible - decent lower-cost speakers can interface w/any given room, and the law of diminishing returns really applies strongly when talking about digital playback: ie: a $20k cd system is really going to be only marginally better than a $2k cd system. ie: i'd rather have a $20k preamp w/a $2k cd player than vice-versa. better to spend the extra $$$ on a preamp, imo. however, w/vinyl, there *is* a greater return for investment when getting more expensive playback components. more important than the preamp? i dunno, but certainly much closer in importance than w/cd. i think it's important to realise that linn, when stressing the importance of the source, made their initial comments prior to the advent of cd... doug