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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 sony

sony
22 posts
 
I subscribe entirely Swampwalker's opinion:

"In other words, high end speakers driven by average electronics will NOT sound as good as good electronics driving average speakers."

I had one system where the weak-link were the speakers: they were too good!!! Superb detail and transparency showed all the limitations of the source, amplifiers and cables!
I've only found two ways of making that system play enjoyable music: Replace all the electronics and cables by much more expensive ones (5k source; 11k amps; 4k cables); or replace the "high-end" speakers by normal "hi-fi" speakers.

From my personal experience I have also found out that for most balanced systems, the largest sum of money should go for the amplifiers, and not the speakers:
1. Amplifiers
2. Speakers
3. Source and cables
sony
22 posts
 
Nrchy, I haven't said that the amplifiers are more important than the source, but that I would put more money on them. Without a good source, forget about it. The main reason to spend more money in the amplifier than the source is simple: Good amplifiers are much more expensive than good sources!

With 5K you can buy a good source.
With 5K you can only buy an average altough powerful amplifier or a fine but weak amplifier.
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