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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?

128x128mkgus
fordste
6 posts
 
Let’s drop all the talk about cost of speakers as compared to the rest of the system let’s talk about sound. Here is my experience in being an Audiophile for 40 years.  Speakers have the greatest impact on the system.
In the grand scheme to get a great system all things need to be right, the table, cartridge, digital source, preamp/amp, cables, speakers, and the room.  But given all else what single item is going to ruin the sound most dramatically if entirely done wrong?  The speaker!  Don’t care how great everything else is.Swap a full size electrostatic with computer speakers and the change in the sound will be huge.  Any other single item swapped will be easily heard but not at the magnitude of the speaker swap.

On the subject of expense, when it comes to the speaker sound, money has no bearing.  Many inexpensive speakers sound wonderful given all the other stuff is right.  In this hobby big money spent looks pretty but does not guarantee the best sound. 
blindjim
3,092 posts
 

@emailists>

How much should the paint cost in a painting?


Blindjim>

Ask  ‘Tooloose ta trek’.


@Fordste>

Many inexpensive speakers sound wonderful given all the other stuff is right.  In this hobby big money spent looks pretty but does not guarantee the best sound.


Blindjim>

+1




peterhaslund's avatar
peterhaslund
1 posts
 

Just reacting to an old thread I guess.

I had to start from scratch 4 years ago and chose the speakers first: Fyne 502 based purely on reviews/music preferences/room. Today they represent 12,5% of total investment. By far costlier is the power amp, at a whopping 50%.

I believe that I have achieved a state of the art system, anno 2003 (o; at much less than half of original asking price. It sounds ok for my music/room/ears

fiesta75
1,378 posts
 

Just my thought on your post. I do think speakers are the most important element in a system. Drivers especially.

Ag insider logo xs@2x
lonemountain
448 posts
 

Transducers are the only devices that change energy from one form to another.  Most home systems have two of these, speakers and phono cartridges. Loudspeaker/cartridge making requires understanding a full array of disciplines including materials science, magnetics, acoustics and electronics.  A true physics puzzle.  Designing/building a quantity of "A level" speakers is not something one takes on casually.  The cost of manufacturing everything yourself is so high that few can do it.  Most transducer makers today are kit builders, focusing on something the end user values beyond sonic virtue (like cosmetics).   There are bargains (where value is far greater than cost) at all levels of the business, from inexpensive to expensive.  These bargains always punch above their weight with any set of electronics, achieving extreme performance levels only when everything in the chain is extremely good.

Brad

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