2. misc-audio
  3. 141872-115924

Relative component value to overall SQ.

There is a lot of discussion about various things in the hi-fi audio component chain and how they affect SQ and as a beginner it would be interesting to see how folks rate the relative value of these items.

This is not necessarily meant to be a hierarchy. What I would like to see is a percentage value for each item in the chain. Total must be 100%.

I realize this is an artificial construct but I think for newbies building a system it would help them know where to start and where to put initial emphasis.

For simplicity I am leaving out the signal source. Let’s assume that the CDP, DAC, streamer, server or TT are delivering an optimal signal of an optimal recording to the system.

I included room optimization since that is also likely critical.

The components are as follows; assign a percentage to each. Total must be 100 :

Speakers
Speaker cables
Amp
Amp power cord
Interconnect cables
Pre-Amp
Pre-amp power cord
Interconnect cables (to source)
Room optimization


n80

Showing 2 responses by almarg

almarg's avatar
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almarg
8,673 posts
 
As you no doubt realize opinions on this question will vary widely, in part because systems, components, rooms, listeners, preferred listening volumes, and listener preferences among different types of recordings (including the dynamic ranges of the kinds of recordings that are listened to, which can vary widely among different genres and labels and can dramatically affect power requirements and potentially the cost of both amplifiers and speakers), all vary widely.

But FWIW, my opinion is as follows:

Speakers 35%;
Room optimization 25%;
Amplifier 20%;
Preamp 15%;
Cables and Power Cords 5%, with that 5% being distributed differently among speaker cables, interconnect cables, and power cords depending on the specific components they are connecting.

Regards,
-- Al


almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
8,673 posts
 
@N80, I believe that the helpfulness of the responses you receive may benefit from some clarification of the question.

I and I believe some of the others who responded earlier in the thread interpreted your asking about "relative component value to overall SQ," and "where to start and where to put initial emphasis," to have essentially no relation to how funds should be allocated. I interpreted the question as involving the relative importance of the various contributors to the overall resulting SQ. In other words, my interpretation was that you were looking for a general rule of thumb guideline as to the degree to which each contributor should be focused on, in building a system.

Yet some others seem to have interpreted the question as relating to how a given amount of funds should be allocated among the various contributors. Which is a very different question, assuming (as I most certainly do) that in audio the correlation between price and results is far less than perfect. And that interpretation appears to have been reinforced by your post today at 2:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For example, my attribution of 25% to "room optimization" certainly does not mean that 25% of whatever funds may be available should be allocated for that purpose, even as a rough rule of thumb guideline.

So further clarification of the question would seem to be in order.

Regards,
-- Al 
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