Which area of components to spend the most $ on? Boy I was wrong all my life!


I have been an audio junkie for about 25 years. All those years, I have read plenty of discussion posts and recommendations where to spend the most money on. The majority, even the experts recommend to spend the most money on speakers. Up to as high as 60% of the total budget.Example: CEO of PS Audio-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwL7vPkPhg
I believed this all my life. Today, my eyes are opened. My total budget is about $15K.Before today, my system was:Speakers-Revel F36 Concerta 2 (For the money, this is the best speakers I’ve heard. I like it more than my previous Dynaudio Contour 30)Integrated Amp-Marantz PM-10 (Class D, balanced, 400wpc at 4ohms)CD Player-Oppo UDP 205 & Marantz CD 6005 (Some of the best in class)Line conditioner-Furman Elite PFi 15Cables-Kimber 8TC Speaker Cables (Sorry, not a cable nut. I’d rather spend money elsewhere)
I upgraded my front end CD player to... Marantz SA-11S3. I was BLOWN away! This is the greatest upgrade I have ever heard in my life. For 25 years, I was taught to spend the most in speakers. Sorry! It’s the FRONT END! The best source you can afford. The purity transcends down the river. I am blown away by the sheer improvement in detail, clarity, depth, the air around the instruments.
My philosophy has changed.
skimrn

Showing 1 response by millercarbon

The best most perfect system possible would neither add to nor subtract from the original signal. Whatever you start with in other words can only be made worse, not better. No speaker, in other words, is capable of correcting the bad signal its fed. Therefore, as a matter of simple logic, if there is anything that one would want to be best it is the one furthest upstream.

The idea of spending more on speakers, the best speakers are the most faithfully accurate reproducers of whatever they get. Why would anyone want to send them the dreck from a cheap front end? It makes no sense.

The other most common major mistake with this kind of advice is to short change so-called accessories like interconnects, power cords, speaker cables, cones, shelves, and power conditioners. By far the better approach is to include all of these with something like dividing equally among speaker, amp, source, cables, and conditioners/ cones/shelves. That's five categories. 20% each.

This approach forces you to think things like, are these separate pre-amp and amp really better for the money than an integrated amp? Really? When they also require extra power cord, interconnect, cones, shelf??? Is an expensive power conditioner really worth taking away money from better power cords and interconnects? Forces you to think about the system as a whole.

Unlike the people who will say otherwise and claim to know what they're talking about I have actually done this, and for paying customers, and know for a fact from experience this is the most likely method to achieve the most results for the least money.

And oh by the way, its also pretty much what Robert Harley recommends in his Complete Guide to High End Audio. Why? Because it works.