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In-Depth Explanation of the Audio Term "Synergy"

Hello: I've read and heard the term "synergy" bandied about frequently since getting into audio. Just the other day, an audiophile friend of mine said in an email. "Regardless of gear brand, I feel synergy is the most important thing to try and achieve really." This term "synergy" gets thrown around often and very easily. Most often I've heard this term used in the phrase, "amplifier-speaker synergy is the most important element of an audio system." I've always felt that if you put together a system and it sounds good to you or sounds "right", you have a system with amp/speaker synergy. I also felt that if your amplifier works with your speakers as it is designed without straining, clipping, running too hot, remaining stable etc., and produces good sonics with your speakers, then you have achieved synergy between your amp and speakers. I do an awful lot of research on the internet for all things audio (much to my wife's chagrin) and I've read several articles that discuss synergy. None of the articles I've read give a definitive and in-depth explanation of what "synergy" between a power amplifier or integrated amplifier and the speakers connected to it actually entails. So, I'm asking other audiophiles: What does "synergy" between an amplifier and speakers actually entail? Does anyone really know, or is this just one of those generalities that audiophiles put out there? What elements are really involved when synergy exists between the amplifier and speakers? I've always been curious about this subject
foster_9
tvad
9,467 posts
 
I can see the definition of synergy as it relates to audio from both an Objectivist and Subjectivist point of view. As I use the term in the audio hobby, I am usually using the Subjectivist approach as Bob P. defined it, since mixing and matching components and accessories is as much art as it is science (perhaps more so), and in my experience, the true magic happens in the artful matching of components.

I started out with the scientific method, and it proved to be unsatisfactory. The most satisfying meals are created by preparing a dish once "by the book", and then adjusting the recipe to taste.
chadnliz's avatar
chadnliz
3,736 posts
 
A fat wallet, a good salesman and an insane upgrade urge all together is great synergy.
timf
237 posts
 
Mrtennis -
if any misunderstanding of the term of synergy is to be had, Ill go with yours. Your 3 examples seem about right to me.
inpepinnovations1e75
395 posts
 
Yes Tvad, but is the meal considered to be a 'synergistic' accomplishment? Not usually, but usually defined or caracterised as 'cuisine' or just good chemistry.
Again, I submit that 'synergy' does not exist in audio systems, i.e. there cannot be a system that is greater than the sum of its parts. There can exist, however, a system where the combination of parts adds up to a more satisfying system than any one of the parts would leave one to expect - sort of the 'zero-sum' concept, when one deficiency is cancelled out by another's deficiency. But that is not synergy.
Bob P.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
4,163 posts
 
It may be semantics, but I agree with inpepinnovations that a system cannot be more than the sum of its parts, but I would argue that many a system actually ends up being less than the sum of its parts. It's this "negative synergy" that experienced audiophiles are looking to minimize. There's nothing magical to it, it's the usual suspects of impedance/gain matching, attention paid to grouding, speaker/room loading, mechanical resonance elmination, etc. You try not to have the same problem in multiple components.
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