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What is the most important component to consider while building a new system?

I recently viewed a You Tube video featuring Paul McGowan from PS Audio discussing the most important component when building a new system. I love Paul's video's and feel they bring a personalized touch to the discussions of all things audio. In the video mentioned Paul took a generalized approach in stating the speakers were the most important component to consider and that the relevant importance of each successive component rested in the chain down stream of the speakers. I am writing this to humbly disagree. I am in the mist of building a new system from scratch over the past 9 months. It has been my experience that if proper care is taken to the quality of the amp. pre-amp. and cables (with an emphasis on cables) you can get away with relatively inexpensive speakers that sound better than they have a right to. This is my own opinion based on recent experiences.
scottya118

Showing 1 response by richopp

richopp
760 posts
 
As a former dealer, I can tell you as many here have, YOUR ROOM and your chosen SPEAKERS IN YOUR ROOM have more to do with accurate music reproduction than any other component.

Physics has not changed; there are only a fixed number of circuit designs available to the most genius of designers, so quality components that people on this forum argue about basically have minuscule differences in final sound in the whole world of things. (Close 'n Play ain't in the running any more.)

I suggest you ask your dealer to set up a pair of Magneplaner speakers IN YOUR ROOM along with some equipment you can afford and see what you think  If you cannot afford super expensive equipment, get what you can and slowly work up to better gear.  The speakers will reproduce what you send them, so they can stay IF THEY FIT YOUR ROOM.

If not, you will be forced to buy some box speakers, but they have improved greatly over the years.  Somehow, some designers figured out that tall speakers offer better imaging, etc., than short ones.  I have NO IDEA where they got that notion (Jim Winey?), so boxes are no longer horrible, but try the Maggies first if you can.

Happy listening!
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