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Speakers are the first piece of the puzzle

Hello All!

This is aimed at understanding one particularly prominent posture on mapping out how to proceed in amassing a great audio outfit with speakers being the most significant ingredient, and initial purchase.

From the Audiogon pages alone, if you read between the lines, one can find that there are several approaches for how to erect an outstanding audio system as to which component should be the initial or by some accounts the largest system investment, or both everytime.

IMHO, The predominant system establishing camps are speakers first, amps first, or sources first. in deference to topologies such as panels vs cones, tubes vs. SS, analog vs. digital, as those preferences are options within options.

For the record, I’m not a card carrying member of the ‘speakers first’ organization. And see an eventually proud highly resolving great sounding system as a work in progress which begins where ever and endss when ever.


So, lets get to the lightening round…Questions:

1. why do you feel any system should begin life with speaker s the first building block AND its greatest investment?

2. which speakers were your first system build?

3. How long did you keep them?

4. were later speaker systems brought in prior to any other ‘component’ changes?

In other words, has the ‘speaker first and always’ theme been your blueprint forever, or at some later point, reveal itself as a much better plan?

tremendous gratitude for all the input.
blindjim

Showing 1 response by dc_bruce

dc_bruce's avatar
dc_bruce
11 posts
 
Well, you have to start somewhere! First, you have to have a room. This seems obvious, but don’t laugh. Consider the size of the room, what other uses are going to be made of it, how much room do you have for audio stuff. For example, my all-time favorite loudspeaker for “realism” is the Magnepan. But that speaker has very demanding placement requirements and needs a lot of room. So, yeah, start with the speaker, considering how it’s going to work in your room, visually and aurally. And are your own speaker tastes a little idiosyncratic; I.e. are you “horny?” Then, think about the amplifier. How much power do you need to make your chosen speakers sing? If you’re a tuber, you should favor speakers closer to 90 dB @ 1 watt efficient and be aware that, as a rule, tube amps interact with conventional speakers idiosyncratically, so consider the speakers and amp as a package. With sources, your first question should be: which ones? Today, there are 3 choices: vinyl records, stored digital (including the shiny discs and downloads) and streaming audio. If you don’t own any existing media - or own digital only - I’d suggest a DAC, a network player/streamer and some sort of NAS (which, initially, can be your computer). There are also units that combine one or more of these functions, including a DAC/preamp which includes an analog input to allow for the possibility of getting into vinyl.
Or you just cut the BS and buy a pair of KEF LS50 “wireless” (you still have to plug ‘em in).  Add a streamer and some NAS and you’re good to go.
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