I never did like numbers. But I advocate spending roughly equivalent amounts on source, amp, speakers until you are spending more than say $10k, and above $10k I would allow a greater weighting towards speakers. I am ignoring the preamp because the best amount to spend there is $0 - if you get what I mean. I make the point regarding the $10k limit because spending less than $3k on either source or amp is likely to get you something that a very revealing speaker is going to expose - to the detriment of long term listening enjoyment. There will be exceptions to this of course. How much to spend on the rest - interconnect, speaker cable, power cords, vibration control and room treatment - also depends on the value of the system, and is not a fixed percentage. On average I would advocate around 20%. I find the question concerning what is the most important component difficult to answer. It is a bit like asking which of your bodily organs is the most important. While both questions are answerable, the most relevant answer is that all of them need to be up to the task or it isn't going to work as well as it should. I find the points above on speaker cable and vibration isolation very easy to agree with. I often hear that speakers are the most important. I agree that this will always appear to be so in response to a brief listen. But I think the effect of long-term listening to poor electronics is underestimated. From one speaker to the next there can be dramatic differences in the performance envelope. But within the performance envelope of any speaker, the differences between electronics, while at first subtle, can be critical to long term musical enjoyment. Most speakers can be made to sound musical with appropriate electronics. Poor electronics can never be saved by a great speaker - they can only be masked by a poor one.
Proportional Allocation to Total System
Dear fellow audiophile/music lover, We all know the fact that the audio system is serial chain and the rule of the game is simple. Minimize the loss and unwelcome addition. I believe your contribution here will help other audiophile/music lover. Could you divide your total system (primary chain only) by following categories and state the percentage of money allocation? 1) Total MSRP of your system 2) Source 3) Pre-amp 4) Power-amp 5) Inter connect 6) Speaker cable 7) Speakers 8) Others. Would you also state which link is most important and why? My Current system: 1) $9200 2) 10.87% 3) 16.3% 4) 16.3% 5) 4.35% 6) 8.7% 7) 32.61% 8) 10.87% My own observations: 1) Equal amount on source and others. 2) Equal amount on amplification and speakers. I think speaker cables are subject to most loss if you don’t allocate sufficient amount. I’ve tested single and double run of Kimber 8TC on ten different systems and always able to hear big difference.