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Speakers Don’t Matter As Much As We Think They Do?

When discussing how best to invest money into your system, it’s very common to hear people say, “Spend as much as you can afford on speakers, and then worry about the other gear because speakers have the largest effect on the sound.”

Now it’s never a bad idea to have good speakers and while I somewhat followed that advice early on, as my system has evolved it seems that I am not currently following that advice, and yet I am getting absolutely fantastic sound. For example as a percentage of my total system cost, my speakers cost 15%. If you include the subwoofers, that price is about 35%.

Early on I was worried I would outgrow my speakers and I’d hit their limit which would restrict sonic improvement potential as I upgraded other gear but that hasn’t been the case. With each component upgrade, things keep sounding better and better. The upper limit to speakers’ potential seems to be a lot higher than previously thought as I continue to improve upon the signal I send them and continue to improve system synergy. If you send a really high quality signal to a pair of speakers and get synergy right, they will reward you in spades and punch well above their apparent weight class.

One thing that may be working in my favor is that I’ve had these speakers since the early days of building my system so literally everything down to the last cable has been tuned to work in synergy with these speakers. Had I upgraded my speakers mid way through, I would have undone a lot of the work that went into the system in terms of synergy.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with their speakers? Does anyone have any extreme percentages in terms of speaker cost to system cost like 5% or 95% and what has been your experience?

128x128mkgus
arcticdeth's avatar
arcticdeth
1,549 posts
 
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.
blindjim
3,092 posts
 

“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.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Chomp!
blindjim
3,092 posts
 

@geoffkait
ROTFLMAO
mtdining's avatar
mtdining
131 posts
 
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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