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Speakers Don’t Matter As Much As We Think They Do?

When discussing how best to invest money into your system, it’s very common to hear people say, “Spend as much as you can afford on speakers, and then worry about the other gear because speakers have the largest effect on the sound.”

Now it’s never a bad idea to have good speakers and while I somewhat followed that advice early on, as my system has evolved it seems that I am not currently following that advice, and yet I am getting absolutely fantastic sound. For example as a percentage of my total system cost, my speakers cost 15%. If you include the subwoofers, that price is about 35%.

Early on I was worried I would outgrow my speakers and I’d hit their limit which would restrict sonic improvement potential as I upgraded other gear but that hasn’t been the case. With each component upgrade, things keep sounding better and better. The upper limit to speakers’ potential seems to be a lot higher than previously thought as I continue to improve upon the signal I send them and continue to improve system synergy. If you send a really high quality signal to a pair of speakers and get synergy right, they will reward you in spades and punch well above their apparent weight class.

One thing that may be working in my favor is that I’ve had these speakers since the early days of building my system so literally everything down to the last cable has been tuned to work in synergy with these speakers. Had I upgraded my speakers mid way through, I would have undone a lot of the work that went into the system in terms of synergy.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with their speakers? Does anyone have any extreme percentages in terms of speaker cost to system cost like 5% or 95% and what has been your experience?

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Showing 1 response by b_limo

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b_limo
2,273 posts
 
I go through speakers really, really fast. I would completely agree that speakers will make the biggest change in sound in a system.  I also agree that system synergy, and also very important, speakers being the right size for your listening room, have a huge impact on overall sound quality.  
I am just now learning though that you can’t judge a speaker based on drivers used.  The Totem Arro’s that I am currently enjoying the heck out of, slayed 3 other, larger, more expensive speakers with better built, higher quality  drivers in them.  The Arros couple to my room perfectly and have a magic or aura to their sound.

I have around $4500 in my entire set-up including room treatments and I have $400 in the Arros.  They displaced 3 other pairs of speakers that were in the $1000-$1200 range used.

Speakers make a huge difference in sound, its just that you may not prefer the more expensive speakers or the higher quality drivers soundwise. 
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