Maintaining a "Balanced" System Design?


After recently upgrading my phono stage, amp and preamp to all ARC, I have begun to explore speakers and have plans to listen to some Joseph Audio Perspectives in the coming week. 

However, in the process of talking with the dealer, it was suggested that I should upgrade my interconnects and speaker cabling. He has suggested all Stage III gear, which is almost as expensive as the JA speakers. 

My question is not to necessarily debate speakers or cables, but to instead hear some thoughts about not over-weighting one's system with a component that exceeds the rest of the gear. For instance, I realized that my current turntable/tonearm/cartridge combination deserved more than the $3k phono stage I had been using. So I moved up to an ARC and really noticed the difference. Of course that brought me to looking at amplification and I am sure everyone knows the story from here...

But, how do folks allocate or balance their systems?  I am pretty sure adding $15k of cables is more than makes sense, but maybe not?

Thanks to all who would like to share their philosophy and experiences. 

128x128thr1961

Showing 1 response by kota1

 

i would start with measuring the acoustics in your room, and get that right first. Then I don’t think you can use cash as a yardstick for improvement, it is subjective. Start with speakers and amp that match, a good pre or integrated, and then your sources. As for cables power first, interconnects second, speaker wire third. I would allocate more budget to the top of that list and then work your way to the end as time and budget allow. These days expensive is not always good and good is not always expensive,