Speaker priority: high or low???

Unsound, my main point was that the source item is responsible for bringing into the system whatever amount of music is going to be played. A better source item can cause more musical information to enter the system. Then, it is up to the amplification chain to preserve as much of that information as possible, while doing the job of amplifying. The speakers are to emit this information as well as possible, given their capabilities and the conditions in the room. My point was not to minimize the importance of speakers, but to point out the importance of the earlier items in the chain, in doing the job needed to make the speakers work at their best. The earlier items, after all, are the things that make the speakers do what they do. Without the earlier items, the speakers could not work at all. Of course, the amp will not work without the speakers either. But, I was not talking about simply losses in the amp chain, I was also referring to the increases of valid musical information that can only be gotten from a better source piece, by retrieving more music from whatever type of disc one might be using. This is what I was meaning by my statements. The speakers can appear to be increasing the information, but the are not really doing that. The better speaker is simply able to reproduce more, and better, of what is already there. But if the source item left the detail info on the disc, there is no hope of reproducing it.

Twl, no argument here. Well said.

Hello again all:

This is really kind of pitiful. What kind of poor excuses for opinionated machismo are we, when the best we can do is to pretty much agree with each other?

I think I'll go slip my Veritas into a groove. And groove.

Thanks to all of you for the party.

Cliff

Cliff, any significance to the fact that you end this dialog with a remark about your Veritas???

It really depends on where you are in your system evolution. If a person is just starting out, then money loaded into speakers encourages him/her the most, because where that person is at, that expenditure is usually seen as 1) economically justified and 2)musically justified.

That said, it also depends on the person in the above beginning scenario; if they've had extensive exposure to your more advanced system and wouldn't be satisfied and are more attuned to the deficencies we all know, then spread the money out more, distributing quality up and down the line looking for a balance in quality, a slice of what could come, a slice of what you have.

On more advanced systems, of course, everything becomes important, but the skill of balancing becomes most important. And, particularly, towards spatial and harmonic factors. This usually leads towards tweeking at the front end. With that said, however, simply because advanced systems end up spending a lot of time on TT's doesn't necessarily mean that that is the most "important", just where, at that point, the most increases in quality become most apparent.

When designing a system, and some of you will think I'm crazy, I've found starting with the preamp (never a passive) and working outward is the easiest (less having to turn around and fix a sound problem)and results in the most musical sound, while also leaving the most places to expand musically (space and harmonic considerations). IMHO, the preamp is the fulcrum of a system. Then again, just because it may yield better long-term results, to work out from a pre doesn't necessarily mean it is the most "important".

It is a balance and depends where you are and what you want. Bad speaker choice, however, is terminal.