I hadn’t spotted Kevsters new one.
I’d like to wake up tomorrow and see everyone’s avatar blue and yellow, but I’m a realist and understand that’s not going to happen.
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Those percentage allocations may alter if you were to purchase new speakers. Over the years speaker prices and tended to remain relatively stable with front end gear prices rising at a faster rate
For whatever reason over the last 10-15 years my percentage allocation to speakers has been about 10-15%
That might be true, Harry did set that budget and was obviously based on what was available then. But I have noticed how my speakers have managed to improve with each upgrade. I’m convinced had originally bought a “cheaper” pair of speakers I would have had to replace them by now.
It’s a fine sentiment indeed.
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Agree entirely Pete , speakers have been the hardest part of the jigsaw for me to be happy . Finally with the Neat range I believe I have achieved that
I think my Ryods are classics, and I was lucky enough (thanks to Harry) to buy the their most expensive pair.
…showing a little love Pete.
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Yep Harry has mentioned to me they are very good speakers so maybe really no change required
Sad times indeed.
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good idea Pete
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Thanks Pete!
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Unfortunately, whilst not factually incorrect, that so-called “logic” does not hold in terms of sound quality. As I stated in my first post in this thread with specific reference to this mantra (a mantra lifted from computer data considerations where it is entirely appropriate), sound quality is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. Yes, if you have poor speakers you can hear improvements to source. Yet the same holds true the other way round. You won’t hear more detail through the speakers than the source puts in, but better speakers (and other components) can reveal details clouded by lesser ones. The key factor with speakers is that of all components they most affect the character of the sound you hear - and getting it to sound right has a major effect on satisfaction, and lack of fatigue. (And of course the room is a significant factor - a poor room, or poorly set up, can destru much of the good the rest of the system may be capable of achieving.)
And I wholeheartedly agree regarding what speakers should be doing - but the vast majority don’t get very near to that, many very far removed, significant departure being the norm through a whole variety of different effects, which is why speakers stamp their character on the music more so than any other component.
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But the info will be restrained, filtered and deformed with not enough good electronics, at the level of the source. So they will just waste your super source.
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Yes, the situation is always dire with a bad pre/amp (or integrated amp), bad speakers even with a good source, and it gets even worse with a bad source.
My point is that you get a good source and then select other components to complement it, not to destroy it.
It is just like making wine, you need good grapes, without good grapes, you just cannot make good wine, no matter how good your technique is.
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I’ve got a perfect example now. Due to the fact that my dealer has to use the loan-streamer this weekend (ND5XS2) I’m thrown back to a Argon Audio streamer of around € 150.-. It’s an ad-on to an old system to bring it up to date. Man, what a hugh difference. Even the 282/SN3 is not able to make it even easy to listen. So the phrase “garbage in garbage out” is completely appropriate.
For me this concludes the idea that to come to a balanced system, the source is indeed a good point to start with. It can bring the rest in the system to live, or not.
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Ok, on counting what I could make out of the responses so far without too much interpretation it seems that we have
- approx 19 opinions in favour of source first (importance or starting point)
- approx 14 (that includes me) in favour of either speakers or speaker/room first or balance most important than any single component (so grouping those not source first)
Even if not entirely accurate as a count (not that important and not meant as a score) I am more optimistic than when I started this thread as my initial impression of an even more (nearly unanimous) overwhelming source first view might have been influenced by more frequent advice in that respect. Great to have this variety of experience shared and in fact I can see several above connecting to the “other point of view” over time and in both directions
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It is great to see an OP who summarises and concludes their thread.
Nice one.
I think the advent of streaming has cast some doubt over the rigid ‘source first’ mantra. What is the source - streamer, transport, DAC, server?..and there is the impact of the LAN, peripheral network devices (switches, filters, optical converters) and the resolution of the source material, which all serve to complicate the rather over-simplistic ‘source first’ approach in the streaming world of today.
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