Can a quality full range speaker be the limiting component in a system?Hi David,
It seems to me that a "yes" answer to your question must follow from the fact that different "quality full range speakers," regardless of how those terms are defined, will almost invariably sound different. And so from a subjective standpoint, at least, there will inevitably be some and probably many "quality full range speakers" that will be less appealing to a given listener than what he or she presently has, and others that will be more appealing than what he or she presently has, with the rest of the system kept the same.
When does one know? How does one know?One thing that can often be particularly helpful in identifying a weak link, IMO/IME, in addition to the obvious approaches of listening to as broad a range of equipment as possible and researching what others report, is to have a good pair of headphones in the system. Obviously the sonic presentations of headphones and speakers are inherently different in some ways, but nevertheless I have found that comparing results between the two can often be helpful in determining the cause of a perceived issue or shortcoming. Or in providing confidence that a possible issue is actually the fault of the recording, and not the system.
Best regards,
-- Al