Speakers vs. Amplifier (Poll Included)

[Will S.]

Perhaps head over to most any tube forum and mention to the set owners that they really should upgrade their flea powered distortion laden amps they're using on their Tannoys, Avantgarde, or Klipsch speakers

Set amps have some of the worst specs going. But there are some that swear by those 1-5 wpc and 1% distortion on the right speakers. Crappy amps by specs alone and great speakers happen all the time and can and do sound quite good together with no need to upgrade either.

Are you being contentious for the sake of being contentious? Nobody brought up SETs and unless you think they're inherently crappy, your comments are irrelevant to the discussion.

 

[Will S.]

That isn't my point at all. The worst amp I can come up with so far is a t amp or a high distortion set amp. Perhaps you have a better example that is somewhat common?

In this forum? How about an unrestored Realistic receiver with DC offset issues and sketchy caps.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Who really cares where'll they'll be in 20 years or even 5 years? So in essence you're calling those t amps junk? My point is that those junk amps can and will make khorns sing. Crappy amps paired with quality speakers can and do make some fine music.

Crappy amp


Will sound better with the shite it came with than your Klipsch.

 

[Grenadeslio]

That isn't my point at all. The worst amp I can come up with so far is a t amp or a high distortion set amp. Perhaps you have a better example that is somewhat common?

Here you go



Your Klipsch would absolutely reveal this for the shite it is and drive you out of the room while making every dog in the neighborhood cry.

 

[dysmike]

I think, like anything else, there are too many dependencies and that creates it so that there are no absolutes

Now, if I were building a system from scratch ... I'd probably go with speakers first.. maybe.

 

[genone]

how many "poor" speakers are there? I went with "poor" and a good amp. Just like with cars..a properly lowered suspension with mediocre tires feels better that a stock one with the best tires.

 

[Quadman2]

how many "poor" speakers are there? I went with "poor" and a good amp. Just like with cars..a properly lowered suspension with mediocre tires feels better that a stock one with the best tires.

Agreed!

Another comparison would be a weak tranny with a 396 or a four banger with a 411 rear end. In both cases, the end results would be not great! One weak link would cancel out the other, but with audio more noticeable with the poor speakers.

Q

 

[imral3]

I haven't noticed the OP (@Guest137 ) pop his head back in this thread/poll yet... Maybe the 17 year-old (according to his profile) is trying to get guidance for his first "good" stereo setup. If so, I hope he can look past all the bickering and simply focus on the overwhelming vote percentage for better speakers. It seems a lot have interpreted this poll differently than others. I took it as the perspective of a beginner looking for help. Maybe I'm wrong. But, thought it was fun to pick one answer over the other.

 

[Grenadeslio]

The starting point for both really makes a difference.

 

[motorstereo]

Here you go

View attachment 1526551

Your Klipsch would absolutely reveal this for the shite it is and drive you out of the room while making every dog in the neighborhood cry.

Are you sure about that??? Actual experience or guess work? If I had a piece of crap like that I'd like to give it a shot just for fun and I'm betting at low levels it wouldn't be as bad as it's made out to be. But where might one find a pos such as that? Surely no one here at ak has one would be my guess. Perhaps we should stick with the cheap, readily available and lowly t amp as the baseline for crap.

 

[Mike Gibson]

In my experience it is in the music. I have what I consider a decent system. Yet when I was working away from home for 8 months my system consisted of computer speakers and a Discman. Pretty hard to beat for a LOW FI system. Yet I noticed that the music still pulled my into it. Obviously this wouldn't be "the system" for critical listening, but IMO critical listening if for gear lovers and not music lovers. This just my experience and opinion so take it with a grain of salt. Nothing wrong with folks who are more into gear than music. It's just that I'm not one of them.

As far as the poll goes I would go with a good amp and poor speakers. As speakers seem to have higher depreciation than a high end amp.

 

[imral3]

@Mike Gibson Mike, which arm are you using on that Mickey Mouse TT? Oh, wait... I see it's the left arm.

 

[Grenadeslio]

Are you sure about that??? Actual experience or guess work? If I had a piece of crap like that I'd like to give it a shot just for fun and I'm betting at low levels it wouldn't be as bad as it's made out to be. But where might one find a pos such as that? Surely no one here at ak has one would be my guess. Perhaps we should stick with the cheap, readily available and lowly t amp as the baseline for crap.

Just replaced one very similar to that in an elderly lady friend's home with a schveet little Yammy receiver and Dayton Audio B652 Air speakers so I think it stays as a baseline until something worse comes along.

I would put money on there are a whole hell of a lot more of these out there than T amps. And only someone that owns such would think better speakers might improve it in the first place. And this is what makes the poll useless.

 

[Mister Pig]

Neither

 

[Hyfi]

I already have an older thread here somewhere talking about pairing lesser speakers with better amps. That said, they were not crap speakers but both pairs from HE MFGs, Dynaudio Audience 42s and JM Labs Tantal 509s. Both pairs were in the $750 range when new. I got very surprising results when dropping them into the system below in my sig.

I would not own a crappy amp so can't comment the other way.

 

[motorstereo]

Are you being contentious for the sake of being contentious? Nobody brought up SETs and unless you think they're inherently crappy, your comments are irrelevant to the discussion.

I was using their measurements which are know to be terrible only as an example to what should be a very poor sounding amp; no harm intended. The SETs I've been lucky enough to hear sounded great; poor measurements and all

 

[DaveVoorhis]

This is meaningless unless "poor" and "decent" are clearly defined.

 

[Hyfi]

Yeah, you need to define the word "poor".....allow me to substitute the term "entry level". In fact, you are more likely to confront entry level than "poor". With an entry level amp like the attached and a sub $150 (street price) pair of speakers, I would opt to change speakers. However, such a system would most likely be better that what you would find in the vast majority of households and my guess is that less than 5% would feel the need to replace anything.

https://www.accessories4less.com/ma...1-ch-x-70-watts-bluetooth-a/v-receiver/1.html

But entry level to what?

Entry Level High End, Mediocre, or Entry Level just listenable?

The speakers I listed I would consider Entry Level to the lowest of High End.

 

[lini]

Poor speakers & decent amp for me (provided the "have" is meant in the sense of "actually use") - 'cause I almost exclusively listen via headphones, anyway, and hardly ever via speakers.

Otherwise (i.e., if the "have" would rather be meant in the sense of "get for free") it would depend: If I'd neither like the particular decent amp model, nor the particular decent speakers, I'd choose the combo with the higher resale value - and I might even still choose that, if its resale value would happen to be high enough, that I could buy the decent amp or the decent speakers again (preferably new) and still have some money left.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[xero-D-hero]

Problem is it's all subjective.

For example motorstereo's use of Khorns as an example for "good" speakers.
Plenty of folks out there cant stand ANY horns as SOP.
10 minutes into listening to a pair and fatigue sets in and they're outta there.
Same deal with some folks and Ti tweeters,,,me I love Ti tweeters...

Anyhow using those Khorns as an example just because they're efficient and can typically be driven with low watt amps is likely a flawed argument.

His core ??? stands though,what do we use as a definition for a bad amp -or- speaker here ?

The answer is going to be different for most everyone here,which is the crux of the problem with the poll as a whole.

Bret P.