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How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

Hello all,

I am just starting out in this HI-FI stuff and have a pretty modest budget (prospectively about 5K) for all. Any suggestions as to how funds should be distributed. At this stage, I have no interest in any analog components. Most notably, whether or not it is favorable to splurge on speakers and settle for less expensive components and upgrade later, or set a target price range and stick to it.

Thanks
krazeeyk

Showing 2 responses by muralman1

muralman1
1,527 posts
 
I'm with Dennis_The_Menace, with minor reservations.

With the great older speakers out there, you needn't spend a lot on speakers. Also, new midfy front ends are closing in on hify performance.

Virgil, you may be correct that $2000 amp upgrades will not buy musical bliss, but with the advent of the new CLASS D amps burgeoning onto the scene, $2000 into new amps will go a LONG way into improving your system's sound. In fact, it most probably will be all you need to spend on amps.

I have $1500 in glorious used speakers (Apogee Scintilla) that defy modern speaker attempts to equal. Added to those, $1000 in a wonderful transport/DAC front end (Liteon DVDROM/Audio NoteDAC). Most importantly, I put $3000 into mono blocks (H2O ICE powered class D), and that took my system into a stunning new universe of sound reproduction parameters.

muralman1
1,527 posts
 
With 5K you can buy a wonderful amp new.

With 5K you can buy a terrific source used.

With 5K you can buy, with a lot of patient searching, a magnificent speaker, used.

Having the one and only 1 ohm speaker demands the system be built around that. My monos did coincidentally cost 5K, the Source just 1K, and the wires .005K. I only payed 1.5K for the speakers. With my preamp costing 5K too, that would make my speakers just about 9%,

Even at that, it is still the speaker I would build a system around , there being none other that interests me.
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