Synergy..what is it and why pay for it

synergy is achieving your sonic goal(s). it is subjective.

there may be aq disagreement as to whether a particular stereo system is synergistic,as it depends upon personal taste. it has nothing to do with balance or other objective measures.

it is as simple as saying if you like the sound of a stereo system there is synergy, otherwise there isn't.

it ceratinly is worth pursuing sysnergy, as it means once you have attained this state personal satisfaction follows.

those who assert sysnergy is neutrality or accuracy of reproduction are applying an arbitrary definition or concept which may have acceptance by some audiophiles, but not by all.

Synergy is when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Which is to say, that individual parts interact to produce a result that is more than what each part alone produces (either good or bad). Think nitro and glycerine versus nitroglycerine. Two harmless chemicals turned into one big boom. Actually, my chemistry is bad, but it's a good analogy.

How do you get it in audio? You can't do it from specs, you probably can't get it from reviews, since the reviewer is not going to have the exact same system as you. I would say you have to do a lot of research, know what you are looking for, then spend a lot of money and a lot of time and keep your fingers crossed.

By the way, be wary when people use this word. I've seen it used many times to make excuses for why a individual piece didn't perform as advertised. It is also used to sell you whole sets of cables from the same company, the claim being the effect is synergistic. Maybe it is , maybe it isn't. Maybe it's a good effect, maybe it's a bad effect. Be skeptical. I'll sign off here so that I can put on my body armour to protect myself from the flaming I'm about to get.

I'd say if I had it to do all over again, I'd spend time at various dealers and when I heard a setup at a dealer that I could afford and really, really,liked, (in other words, one with synergy), I'd buy it, front end, electronics, cables and speakers. It's been a crazy, expensive, and frustrating ride trying to put together a pleasurable system on my own.

Synergy is very elusive and a matter of luck for many in this hobby. I agree that if you put together a system and it sounds good to great, then you have synergy. Getting it to sound that way can be economically and mentally painful. There are so many variables that lead to synergy in an audio system that it seems at times like you have to be an audio expert or be just lucky to achieve it.