As I have moved up through the Vandersteen speaker line 2Ce, 3A, 3Asig, and now 5, I have found that more money does buy better sounding speakers, but this is always assuming that I was driving them with good quality components. But speakers are probably the most colored component in the stereo chain. It is well known that there are some fairly inexpensive but good sounding speakers out there, ie Stereophile has reviewed some B&Ws-- that are real overachievers, but there are others such as Paradigm, NHT, PSB etc.
Really expensive speakers (IMO) only sound good with really expensive components (well, at least good quality electronics). $20K speakers will likely sound lousy if driven by cheap sounding electronics. But then there are also some inexpensive, but good sounding electronics, ie NAD, Rotel, Adcom etc come to mind.
The approach I've taken is to up-grade speakers only when I'm pretty sure my electronics will support them with better quality music-- the "diminishing returns" principal applies here too.
And as always, audition, audition, audition. It's essential to learn critical listening skills, and this takes time and effort, if you're going to be consistently successful in up-grading. Books have probably been written on this subject. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig.
Really expensive speakers (IMO) only sound good with really expensive components (well, at least good quality electronics). $20K speakers will likely sound lousy if driven by cheap sounding electronics. But then there are also some inexpensive, but good sounding electronics, ie NAD, Rotel, Adcom etc come to mind.
The approach I've taken is to up-grade speakers only when I'm pretty sure my electronics will support them with better quality music-- the "diminishing returns" principal applies here too.
And as always, audition, audition, audition. It's essential to learn critical listening skills, and this takes time and effort, if you're going to be consistently successful in up-grading. Books have probably been written on this subject. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig.