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In Reply to: Best Full Range All Rounder for $4-5K posted by ithomsonb on March 17, 2007 at 12:30:03:
Look for a good system: system gestalt is far more important than any good speaker.Too many people look around for great deals on highly regarded speakers and then wonder why their music doesn't sound the way they want it. Then, they declare their speakers as "bad," - and go off and buy more speakers, creating an endless, and expensive cycle of "wrong" purchases and emphasis. Again, IMO, I find it amazingly ironic the amount of financial investment that goes into speaker purchases to the detriment of mating the right speaker with the right amplication, cables, and sources; with the end result being poor overall gestalt. It's not necessarily a financial thing, but I can't tell you how many people by $10K speakers and think that they're going to have great music with $1,500 amps and Monster cable.... If you're not thinking that your amps will cost double your speakers, - you're probably not realizing the value of your amplification.
The problem of leisure, what to do for pleasure. Ideal love a new purchase, a market of the senses. Dream of the perfect life.
Follow Ups:
Can you explain how a budget should be divided between various parts of a system at different price points and how this has changed over time? For example, if someone has a $7,000 budget, what percentage should be spent on speakers, amplification, source, and cables? What were the percentages in 1980? What are the percentages if the budget is increased to $30,000? These percentages must change with budget, technological advancement, and the type of system being put together.That said, I don't understand why a $1,500 amp couldn't work fine with $10,000 speakers. There are bound to be instances where a $10,000 pair of speakers is fairly easy to drive and doesn't sound all that much better with more expensive amplification. It's a lot easier to understand how the $10,000 speakers driven by a $20,000 amp with $5,000 worth of cable would be more profitable, though. I find it hard to put this out of my mind when dealers start talking synergy.
There are "giant killers" out there in every price category.....My point was in general, - people spend too much time paying attention to their speakers and not enough with their amplification. And, - IMO, - there are more "giant killer" speakers out there than amps.
For sure it takes a great deal of engineering talent to build great speakers and great amplifiers. But, the costs and R&D and beautiful, clean, dynamic sounding amplifiers that MATCH well with your favorite speakers are more rare. Good, clean, high current, well balanced amplification commands a pretty penny, and there are fewer shortcuts.
Again, maybe there are one or two giant killer $1,500 amps, - like perhaps, - the NuForce that folks are raving about, - but they are very, very, rare breed.
The problem of leisure, what to do for pleasure. Ideal love a new purchase, a market of the senses. Dream of the perfect life.
This a good point - I don't disagree with the gestalt thing and have heard it first hand - some matches are much better than others. However in my experience, albeit more limited than many audio enthusiasts, the speakers to me seem to make the most difference. First case in point - I have amplified my current Totem Hawks with several different beasts from a $500 NAD to a $5,000 Classe to a few well-regarded tube amps and couldn't hear much a difference except my current amp seems to get the most out of the bass frequencies. I have had similar experiences with cables and frankly don't buy most of the hype around cables - maybe it's my ears but when I test different cables I find that I am talking myself into hearing differences that deep down I don't believe I am actually hearing. All of this has led me to believe I am getting about all I can get out of my Totems and I am not satisfied. Second case in point, I recently spent the better part of an afternoon at a local dealer and we played with a lot of different speakers for awhile and the differences were obvious to my ear, then for fun I asked him to switch the amplification so we could A/B on the same speakers. I had a very hard time hearing significant differences, even between tubes and SS amps, even across some major price gaps.
In addition, my source and amp work for me from a convenience and location perspective so I kind of need to build a system around them, even if it's not getting 100% out of the system. I have a ton of music and no storage for CD's so the music server is really the only solution for me plus I tried to A/B as best I could the server vs some good, dedicated players and could not hear a difference. The amp needs to be in a poorly ventilated cabinet and the Meridian runs very cool and shuts down to standby after a period of non-use and it provides a lot of power and current when needed.I won't buy until I audition in my home with my gear so I will know if I am getting an upgrade in sound or not when used with my current gear. Maybe I'll end up sticking with what I've got for the very reason you bring up. I'll keep you posted....
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