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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 5 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,921 posts
 
The happy/MOST EFFICIENT path to the best results is room 1st, speakers second, amp third and then the rest.

Other orders can work well also as long as the end results are in synch, but will likely take more time and expense to optimize and results may not be as good.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,921 posts
 
Why do you think it is called an audio "system"?

Look up the definition of a system.

How you get there does not matter as much as the end results, though there are still happy paths and not so happy paths.

A little experience and knowledge certainly helps also.

What in the blue hell more is there to say about this topic?
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,921 posts
 
YEs, good job Stickman!

Speaker/room interactions and resulting sound are highly variable and not easy to predict until you try.

A room may also dictate a more powerful amp (or more efficient speakers) but that is a relationship that is more predictable and hence lower risk.

Always address your highest risk items first. That's a basic best practice of modern design that all good designers are familiar with.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,921 posts
 
When I sold gear years ago in a well known at the time higher end audio chain, and it was still common to sell complete systems in one shot for the customer's budget we were all taught to help the customer find the right speakers first, then the amp, then the rest.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,921 posts
 
Definitely a good idea to avoid underpowered amps, but even that is determined by the speakers.

I think if more people used amps powerful enough to bring out the best with the speakers they have, they would get off the speaker merry go round faster.

But again this is just another example of the importance of having a good match. It doesn't make the amp more important than the speaker.
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