Percentage to spend on Amp and Speakers

I think you should always try to buy the best(to you) you can. And buy things you will be happy with, isn't that the point of this hobby? As a rough guide, I think you start with your likes and dislikes. Include how you listen, what you listen to, what you listen for, and so on. Next, you consider the room. Then you can think about speakers. They must match first the room, and then the amplification. This takes more thought than it may appear. I just realized that it all snowballs. Then move on to amplification. I think speakers and amplification both require you to look both up and downstream. Room and amp for the speakers. Speakers and source for the amp. Continue on with your source components. Wire is the LAST thing to worry about. There should be a synergistic match of the upstream component, wire, and downstream component. Synergistic is also subjective. Making things sound best to YOUR ears. As in the end, that is the only thing that matters. Rarely do our lives follow such meticulous blueprinting, but if I had to start from scratch, I would follow this map. Happy listening!

Put at least 1.5k + in your source.it is the most important part of your system.Do the speakers last.when you have all else in place then you have great flexibility in speakers.

Hey,the cart can go before the horse with the proper harness.As in front engine/ rear engine. Front wheel/ rear wheel drive. Trelja got THE smarts here: The right recipe,the potential up and down sides.I believe the speakers/in general should be driven by equiptment costing more. AS in more on the amp,more on the dig front end;my cabling cost more than my speakers.Not by much,as with the amp/not by much.I think in the past,I over bought on speakers,was un happy,and "knot" to smart.The speakers sounded ok till you heard better.I'm not to sure people buy "whole" systems,and live "happy-ever-after". Bose owners,excepted.This thing is ongoing.Everybody got dif.opinions and budgets;But all things being equal is where it's at fer'me.

Avguy, please amplify, if Miked spends $2k on speakers, are you really urging him to spend a similar amount on wire? I agree with you when you note that an inexpensive speaker w/ a high cost/quality amp will sound more musically satisfying than an expensive speaker mated to a cheap amp. Yet, I disagree with elevating wire to an equal status with source components or speakers. I'm particularly adamant in my position for systems costing less than $5k. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying wire is not important, especially if your system cost $20k plus -- but otherwise it's only wire.

Sorry to be so blunt, but if you have a relatively large room you can get the Maggies 1.6 ($1.5K), the Marsh A400S ($1.8K), a street DVD/CD with 24/96 output ($350), the MSB Full Nelson Link DAC ($800), and a volume control such as the MSB($400, or preferably an analog one) and have a truly audiophile system for around $5000, with true 24/96 capability ! Wire everything with Monster Cable ($200) until you can afford to upgrade the cables (north of $1K). Future upgrade: Adcom, Marsh or other good (i.e. inert) solid state linestage/pre-amp to replace the volume pot($1-1.5K),and the Sunfire self-powered subwoofer ($1.9K) for near-sonic heaven.