How do you determine how much to spend on speakers

With all due respect, my speakers only cost 20% of the total price of my system (including only CD as a source -- not including turntable). For some reason, for the 25 years I have been an audio junkie, speakers have always been the "sexy" components. Unfortunately, It took me many years and many thousands of dollars to realize that past a certain price point, source and electronics by far have the greatest impact on listening experience.

If a friend of mine had $5,000 to spend on a system, I would recommend that he spend a grand on good used speakers, a grand on a good used CD player and 3 grand on used electronics. (Unfortunately, there is a lot of over priced crap on the market in the electronics department.)

Five grand should get a person a very musical system.

I think you should budget as much as you can to get into the speakers you really want. Electronics are easier to buy/sell.

A good set of speakers will reveal every improvement you make up-stream too.

You can get some GREAT deals on A-gon for some killer used speakers! :)

Interesting quote from Ashley James of AVI Hifi (UK), not seen posted on here...

"If we score on a scale of 0-10 the difference in sound made by various components of a Hi Fi system, cables would score 0.1, electronics 10 and speakers a 100!"

Having faith in Ashley, I have to say.. he's probably right.

The speakers are a choice that is left up to a persons own ear!
After listening to 10,000 dollar speakers vs.1,000 speakers the pearson might like the sound of the less expensiveitem.
It's all in the ear of the beholder,not the pocketbook.

In building a system. First you buy Speakers that asthetically and acoustically work well with your particular Listening Room. Then you buy an Amplifier well suited to effectively power those Speakers. Lastly you buy the best sounding source component that you can afford. Add-in some good inexpensive Cables, and your done. As far as what percentage to spend on a particular component is concerned, it doesn't matter, there is no formula, it's impossible to calculate, there are far too many variables. The Speakers are the only Component that need to fit a physical and acoustic criteria set by the listening room. There are no physical restrictions on the other components, so this is where I would start, and let the costs/budget play-out from there.