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Proportion of expenses

How should one apportion their expenses on a stereo system, particularly at different levels of expense? For instance if you have 100,000 to spend should you spend 40% on the speakers 20% on the source 20% on the preamp and 20% on the amp or should it be some other combination (yes I'm making this up - not making a recommendation)?

It might be interesting to see at various price points. Like 10,000, 20,000, 50,000,100,000, 300,000 and unlimited. In some ways the question gets at what component is most important in different price ranges, in other ways it gets at the fact that the price/performance ratio is different among components.

A related question is where do you start in designing a system you want to build. Do you start with speakers and build back or source and build forward? Do you match precisely or get the best you can afford?

I was just curious.
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Showing 1 response by jmcgrogan2

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jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
This question has been asked many times over the years. You could try searching the archives for other answers.

From my experiences, and listening to others, there seems to be no magic formula for success. No shortcuts for experience. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of paths to audio nirvana.

Some swear by speakers first, some amps first, some will call the preamp the heart of the system, while others will even call cables the key to success. Some will spend 80% of their budget on speakers, some will spend 80% of their budget on cables.

If you ask 10 different audiophiles the same question you will get 11 different answers.
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