The only way to choose speakers is to listen to them unfortunately. And if he gets a really good pair of speakers he may want a better amp than the PeachTree anyway.
??? How Do You Determine How Far You Can Take An Amp When Choosing Speakers ???
Talking to a friends son today who is only a few years into this hobby..He’s moved up from an all in one home theater system to a gently used Peachtree Audio Nova ( Gen.1 ) that his dad had sitting in a box the last few years..
As he is an Electrical Engineering student, he’s gone through the amp & refurbished it with new caps,resistors,transistors & a new 6922 tube from Gold Lion...
His speakers are also hand me downs from pops..A set of original Dynaudio Audience 52’s..While discussing speaker upgrades he asked me the same question I posted in my thread title..I honestly didn’t know how to answer him..
I’ve always worked on the budget basis,seeking out the best option for my given price range..He’s already making $ hand over fist & he stated flatly he didn’t have a budget in mind,being willing to spend as much as it took to get the absolute best speakers his amp would support..
At some point in the future I’m sure he will finally get the urge to upgrade the amp but that could be many years from now..
So the question I pose to you is, how would you determine just how much speaker your choosen amp will sing with before becoming the weakest link in the system?Twice the retail value of the amp?3 times,5 times,10?
I realize most common system building dogma dictates choosing speakers first then buying an amp for them but he's already got the amp so that doesn't work here...
I know synergy between speakers & amp plays some importance in the final overall sound but he lives in an area not known for being an audio store hotspot & dragging his amp to stores several hundred miles away seems like a real PITA...Any advice?
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I don't overthink it. My speakers are amp agnostic, so I just got the best Hypex NCx500 Monoblocks and run them as I have music that is transient heavy so peak power and sustained power is important and the Apollon implementation of the Hypex modules is endgame material. @freediver |
Money is always an issue but not the key issue here.
You always want an amp capable of driving specific speakers to their max without having to break a sweat for best performance/objective results. Beefier amps will do it with more speakers. Less efficient speakers will work best with fewer amps.
Note: What works best from a technical/engineering perspective is not the same as what sounds best to a particular listener. What someone thinks sounds best is a purely subjective determination.
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"Weakest link" and "source first" philosophies (etc) belie the nuanced complexities of human perception and system building. Though when you’re starting out, it can help to establish a sense of order amongst the chaos. You can have great successes and failures with any of these combinations:
By "cheap" I don’t mean junk, and I’m including used-market bargains. Finding a beloved cheap amp & cheap speakers setup is also possible, but for most of us here this is playing the game in "hell" mode difficulty - same with buying only new at MSRP. Like any nontrivial hobby this is a journey, and a young man like your friend’s son will have to find his own legs, then start forging his preferred path. Since he’s a capable EE, he might look into vintage amps. I think also it’s important to hear several different speakers brands & configurations, to start shaping a sense of what you like. I honed in on Tannoy as my favorite speakers, and since then I’ve grown quite fond of pairing them to "extravagant tube amps" - but vintage tube amps are still fun too, and modern solid state (even Class D) can sound good too! Tell him to go forth and explore! |
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