How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

Krazeeyk

Building your system is an art form. You can be an expressionist or you can paint by numbers.

My point is to go for that special kind of sound that excites you, puts a grin on your face all day so you can't wait to come home to it to listen at night. Listen to a lot of different speakers and buy the ones that you fall in love with. Within you budget of course. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you have to buy it all at once.

I started out last year not knowing anything and searching for speakers and I was only willing to spend $500.00. Not surprisingly I couldn't find anything I liked for that amount. Then I started pricing components and figured I would spend about $5000.00. It took me 4 months and about 30 auditions but I finally found my love. I got Thiel CS2.3, Bryston 4B-ST and BP 25. Not because they are good value but because they reproduce music the way I want to hear it. I have since doubled my investment with more still to go, of course. I spent alot more than I originally intended but I get more enjoyment from it than I ever imagined and that is what it is all about.

I wouldn't have Krell, Mark Levinson, Linn, JM Lab Utopia or even Thiel CS7.2. Not because they aren't good
(they are) or because they are more expensive than what I have but because they don't have the sound I am looking for. Remember we are artists. Don't make the mistake of thinking you are missing out because you don't have the high-dollar stuff. If you had it you might not like the sound anyway.

Focus on "the sound" you want. Buy speakers you will want to keep and build your system upon that. Purchase additional components as you find them and as your budget allows and always enjoy the journey.

Jazzdude, how did you go about having 30 auditions. Did you buy these prospective components and test them out in your sound room? I understand your point about not having to buy everything at once, but I have an empty plate. I have no components to start out with. So everything will sound "new" and "unfamiliar" to me. Which makes it harder to distinguish how a new component has affected the sound of my system. Guess I just got to start somewhere right?

Thanks

Krazeeyk

Yes you have to start somewhere. You have to know where you are going too. Decide on good material to audition with. Use the same material everywhere. Listen critically for the aspects of the music that are important to you. Take notes while you are auditioning. Carry an SPL meter with you if you want. Once you have found speakers that you like audition them again with different amps to confirm the sound or note the differences. Your components will sound different in your room than they do at the dealer.
As you build out your system you will probably think they sound better. That is for a couple of reasons. First a lot of dealer rooms have more acoustic problems then your room will. Second you are building your system, you have control, you are the artist. Focus on that positive emotional response. If you are auditioning a component and you can't stop smiling, then ask yourself why. Your talking about laying down a good sum of money. The rest of your system will be built upon the sound of your speakers. Make sure the love is there. Don't lose patience in your search.

Once you get your speakers then you can audition amps at home. Your first source can be something simple like a $200-500 sony cdp or a dvd player that plays cds and you can hook up to a TV after you upgrade. Thats a good place to start because it is a plain vanilla sound.

Krazeeyk. Here's my story in a nutshell.

Two years ago I decided to buy my first high end piece of gear because my home theater wasn't cutting it musically. I went to a local shop and bought a pair of Sonus Faber Concertinos thinking they would transform my HT front end. It didn't happen. For a year and a half I purchased all kinds of gear to make those Concertinos sound the way I wanted them to. Eventually, I ended up getting different speakers, and now six months hence I have finally settled into a system I really like.

Here's where I'm at:

Theta Pearl transport
Bel Canto DAC 1.1
Blue Circle BC21
Blue Circle BC22
ProAc Tablette 50 Sigs
NHT SW3P subwoofer
And a whole gang of cables and cords from Kimber, Cardas, Harmonic Tech, Analysis Plus, Acoustic Zen, DH Labs and Virtual Dynamics

With the exception of the Bel Canto I bought everything here used on Audiogon. Not including the cables, the gear alone was about $5000 used. I've met and dealt with a lot of great people here and listened to some cool stuff along the way. If you're open to buying used, you'll save a ton of cash.

I have no idea what the freakin' moral of the story is, but if you're like the rest of us you'll probably end up spending way more and swapping around more gear than you ever could have imagined at the start. Even though I went about this bass ackwards, I think Seandtaylor99's budget breakdown makes a lot of sense. You can get a good system for $5,000 new. But for $5,000 used you could wrangle a $8,000-$10,000 setup. "Wholly smoke Doctor Jones!!" And realize too that you will upgrade or at least have the urge to along the way.

So I guess I started with speakers first and took a crooked and winding road to where I now happily sit and enjoy my music. The End...until something new and cool comes grabs my attention.

I post this only because I don't find this particular advice anywhere else here.
The phrase "you have to start somewhere" is very true, but it assumes later upgrades. Every audiophile I know has the same disease. Don't overlook that. If you are just starting out, you can save lots of money by doing it very smartly. I guarantee you, when you have bought what you think is the best you can get at that time with the given amount of money, sometime later (and probably shortly thereafter) you will start second guessing your choices, and get the itch to upgrade. After two or three years or so, several total system changes, and two or three times the money you initially spent, you may look at your system and say to yourself, "you know, if I had thought of my current system's components two years ago, I could have bought them with the original 5k and saved a lot of money."
You say in response to the above, "yeah, no kidding, lots of audiophiles do that; it's a process you have to go through." And I agree to a point. But my advice is to try to skip all the components in between your "starter system" and your final (is there ever one?) system. You do that by buying the best "low-hi end" components you can find used for the cheapest amount (i.e., Polk RT35i speakers, creek 4330 integrated, some monster wire, and a 200 dollar CD player, all for less than a grand). THEN, after listening to that for a good 3 months, you have a frame of reference of sound from which to compare, and most importantly a system you can home demo components on and hear a comparison. Even if you go listen to every item at all the local dealers there are far too many variables to change the sound from when you listen to it there to when you get it home. Again, you need a frame of reference to start from.
I wish someone had offered me this tpe of advice when I first began. One other tidbit; if at some point you are nearly satisfied with your system but you feel it is missing something specific (like a subwoofer, or good cables, or whatever), don't settle for something well below the quality of the rest of your system. You will just end up upgrading it anyway soon thereafter. Buy the best you can afford in line with the rest of your system.
Best of all, the whole damned process is a load of fun, which ever way you do it! Good luck. (And btw, back-issues of the Absolute Sound have reviewers' choice systems, to include their budget systems. You can get a lot of good ideas from there).