2. amps-preamps
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Amp more important than speakers?

The common wisdom seems to be the opposite (at least from speaker makers), but I have tried the many speakers that have come thru my house on lesser amps or my midfi A/V receiver and something was always very wrong, and things often sounded worse than cheap speakers.
On the other hand, I have tried many humble speakers on my my really good amps (& source) and heard really fine results.

Recently I tried my Harbeth SHL5s (& previously my Aerial 10Ts, Piega P10s, and others) on the receiver or even my Onkyo A9555 (which is nice with my 1985 Ohm Walsh 4s, which I consider mid-fi), and the 3 high end speakers sounded boomy, bland, opaque.

But when I tried even really cheap speakers on my main setup (Edge NL12.1 w/tube preamp) I got very nice results
(old Celestion SL6s, little Jensen midfi speakers).

So I don't think it's a waste of resources to get great amplification and sources even for more humble speakers.
My Harbeth SHL5s *really* benefit from amps & sources that are far more expensive than the Harbeths.

Once I had Aerial 10Ts that sounded like new speakers with vocals to die for when I drove them with a Pass X350 to replace an Aragon 8008.

Oh well, thanks for reading my rambling thoughts here...

So I think I would avoid pairing good speakers with lesser amps,
rgs92

Showing 3 responses by jafox

jafox
1,449 posts
 
Good signal anywhere ==> Garbage component any where ==> Garbage out

I am another who feels that it is all about the room and thus what speakers will match with it. What walls are available, corners, odd room shapes, furnishings, etc. will dictate what speakers are possible. And then the buyer has to choose which priorities are highest for the final speaker.

Finding a matching amp is really not all that difficult as there are so many great amps out there to handle high or low efficiency speakers, or those that require high current output, etc. Sadly, the same can not be said for preamps...only a handful have cut it for me in 30 years.
jafox
1,449 posts
 
Back when I practically lived in "high end emporiums", we were "grooving mightily" to all ARC electronics and top of the line Thiel speakers, when someone came in who wanted to audition a Rotel amp. After the Rotel amp was inserted, with ARC pre and Thiel still in the lineup; the soundstage collapsed.
Hardly surprised. But if you kept the ARC components and swapped in a pair of Radio Shack speakers, the soundstage too would have collapsed. So this proves nothing other than a fool implementing an audio system for either instance.
jafox
1,449 posts
 
Jafox, why not keep the ARC and throw away the speakers?
Because the many ARC amps out there with their wimpy power supplies and output transformers might not be suitable with the speakers, e.g., SoundLab, Magnepan, Apogee, MBL, that I might ultimately decide for my system.
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