Amp more important than speakers?

Back when I practically lived in "high end emporiums", we were "grooving mightily" to all ARC electronics and top of the line Thiel speakers, when someone came in who wanted to audition a Rotel amp. After the Rotel amp was inserted, with ARC pre and Thiel still in the lineup; the soundstage collapsed.

Hardly surprised. But if you kept the ARC components and swapped in a pair of Radio Shack speakers, the soundstage too would have collapsed. So this proves nothing other than a fool implementing an audio system for either instance.

Want to comment on Blindjim's post. I don't necessarily disagree with your front-end-is-most-important position, though I think I'd side with many here who suggest it's about all the pieces and how they sound together.

You suggest speakers don't factor into sound quality as much as they do bandwidth. That sound quality relies on the signal path. I would argue that better build quality in a more expensive speaker will lead to a better sounding speaker, as things such as resonances are dealt with. More expensive drivers will outperform cheaper ones, allowing the use of less intrusive crossovers. And on and on it goes...

To say that speakers do not manufacture a sound, they just allow it. And that they will exude what they receive and not change it. Personally I agree that the incoming signal must be of high quality, but speakers simply do have their own colorations. Get a high quality front end and play them through two different sets of speakers - the sound will almost surely change.

If the VR4 was simply an open window to what came before it in the chain, then surely it would not require the specific front end you heard that day in that second room. Instead, any well made front end should sound great with those speakers (assuming adequate specification matching). I think it must have been something with that front end and those speakers together that caught your ear. And who knows...probably the cabling and the room too. Just my two pennies.

Jafox, why not keep the ARC and throw away the speakers?

Jafox, why not keep the ARC and throw away the speakers?

Because the many ARC amps out there with their wimpy power supplies and output transformers might not be suitable with the speakers, e.g., SoundLab, Magnepan, Apogee, MBL, that I might ultimately decide for my system.

Fusion10

going speakers first, might lock a person into a particular camp and I see that as a sort of drawback.

if you grab a pr of panels because of how they image perhaps, then decide you want to try out an 8 watt 300b amp, it's speaker selling time!

Around here one can and will hear a lot of pros and cons for this or that approach to building a system.

some often contend speakers make the biggest impact on the sound of a stereo, versus some other item being replaced in that system.

IMHO, the jury is still out on that idea.

Exchange out your SS amp for a single triode amp... tell me that did not have a significant effect on the sound.

Replace your aV reciever you are using as a preamp with a $10K line stage tube preamp and then tell me it was a Ho hum exchange.

El toro mietae!

of course, if a system is not highly resolving, it matters very little what alterations are made, as they likely won't be detected.

You are as welcome to your opinion as are we all. Waht I posted is more or less what my exp has shown or proven outright to me. Repeatedly.

I think my first few sentences in my last post said
EVERYTHING MATTERS… ok.. There it is again.

A certain setup is exactly that … a certain, particular, unique setup. As much as you might try to duplicate a given configuration, it’s about impossible to do so, though you may come close, it won’t be a clone.

I also found out better front ends provide better results… even with more modest speakers. Period. Believe that or not, I don’t care. Big beautiful expensive speakers first devotees are simply in a pissing contest… showing off to some degree IMO. Especially IF they feel that investment alone or even predominately is going to give them a killer outfit without commensurate funds being injected upstream.

Ego… plays a fairly large part in this past time too… do remember that.

Speakers are what everyone sees… and many think… are the stereo itself! They are if nothing else, the icons of our hobby. They are the art. The majesty. The idols. The Venus de Milo’s of our arrangements. They are the signature of a system.

…but they aren’t predominately where the real majic is born. They just convey it to us. Hopefully with as little signature of their own as is possible.

Trust me, If I could afford a pr of Alexandrias, andrea IIis, Evidence, Stratovari, etc… I’d have ‘em!

‘Course, if I could afford the likes of them, my front end would be as well appointed.

I can’t.

I’m guessing who ever posted this thread is on the fence about which way to go, and has a fineite amount of bucks on hand to devote to the hobby and is wondering which way to jump.

I’ve been very very happy with the results of going from source to speakers in constructing a variety of stereo or AV rigs. Naturally, none are or were ever finished as quickly as they were begun. All received ongoing attention, updates, and upgrades as was my ability to do so. In that context, no system I’ve had or own now has ever been finished… all remain in a state of flux. Awaiting an injection of some new this or that… or some replacement.

Speakers are no different. Not in my world anyhow.

Although in different rooms, I’ve heard the same set of speakers fueled by differing front ends… naturally each sounded differently. Which one sounded best? That’s a subjective call I think.

And that is likely our bottom line… this rhetoric at best is purely subjective. There is no preappointed judge. No jury. No coromated king of sound that says “a stereo must sound like….”. Nope. None, but us.

It’s our call. Our money, and our mania. I’ve simply found a way that works for me that does not require me to invest a second mortgage or hock my first born for a pr of speakers.

In the final analysis, so long as each area of the system is addressed appropriately, or as best one can, the results should be just fine. If not, something was overlooked somewhere, or there is some mismatch in the outfit.

All roads lead to Culver city. How we get there is up to us… I’ve gotten there on my thumb, by car, plane, and bus. Now, I might just try by horseback, as this thread is once again, beating one to death as have so many before it.

It really doesn’t matter which end gets the most attention first, so long as all of them get attended to with the same level of devotion, or as one is able.