Poll: Most important part of a system?

[hopjohn]

What is the most important part of an Audio/HT system?

 

[anamorphic96]

Now that I have spent an enormous amount of time on this site my vote goes towards room acoustics.

In my eyes it does not matter how good your speakers or other somponets are. If you have bad acoustics your system will sound poor.

I have spent around 400 dollars on room treatments and it has made me re-evaluate everything about audio. It showed me you DO NOT have to spend vast amounts of money on gear to get stellar sound.

The room dictates everything. After this speakers would be the next thing.

1. Room
2. Speakers
3. Amp / Receiver
4. Source - I use to think this was the most important aspect. But with the players out there today you dont have to spend much.

 

[Catdaddy]

For me it would be display.

Projector/screen or TV. On the audio side, speakers.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Speakers. You can have a weak receiver, but if you buy a high quality spl speaker, it won't make much difference. I would also add speaker placement to this section, as ill placed speakers can wreck havok on the end result.

Next would be receiver/amp. I rank this above room acoustics because I still think one needs a good power supply to a mid to high end receiver. The better the receiver, the less distortion, and the better the bass management. Underpowered receivers don't do anyone any favors if the speakers are lacking in the higher spl.

Room acoustics, third. Although this plays a tremendous role in the sound, an $80 KLH receiver powering $50 KLH cubes won't matter much in any type of room. Control the room after you settle on the speakers and amp.

Interconnects next. You don't need to spend a fortune on them, but you should at least get good quality here. 12/2 for your speaker cable (any type), and solder the tips if you don't terminate the ends. Keep the stripped ends short. If they come in contact with another speaker wire, you could fry your amp or damage your speakers. Your rca's should be well insulated to avoid interference. You should always use some type of power surge protection. A power conditioner is fine if you have irregular voltage in your lines, but not necessary IMO. Finally, ventilation. Your amp needs a lot of clean, fresh air to run efficiently. Putting it in an enclosed cabinet will shorten the life of your amp, as well as any other components in that same cabinet. Excess heat destroys electronics.

Since this is audioholics, I'll leave the video out for now. If this were videoholics, I'd rank this first! Nothing beats the new Pioneer Plasma HDTV's.

 

[VS540]

The ROOM is the most important, followed by the speakers themselves and speaker placement. Then I'd say the pre/pro & power amp (or receiver), and source.

Also, always make sure you have enough power so you don't clip.

 

[wilmeland]

speakers followed by very close second of room acoustics

acoustics of the room are extremely important unless your speakers are crap

 

[HookedOnSound]

I voted speakers

Speakers first than room acoustics.

After all, if you have no speakers delivering sound, no need to worry about room acoustics.

 

[JoeE SP9]

I knocked down a wall in my house in order to have a good acoustic environment. Even so I would still say speakers are the most important part of a rig. Although crappy speakers in a good room can be nothing better than mediocre, good speakers in a crappy room are probably quite listenable. Maybe speaker/room should be one thing.

 

[sjdgpt]

Oh, it has to be the interconnects and speaker wire. Without these very important components, no sound or video will be heard or displayed.

Now, when you plan on budget, make sure that you spend AT LEAST 90% of the budget on the all important speaker cables.

Ok, maybe the budget part went a bit over the top.



Seriously,

1. Surge protector & line conditioner. No, not one one of them "I can stabilize your voltage and remove 10,000db of noise" line conditioners, rather a decent surge protector with built in 60db of EMF/RMI noise reduction. A decent surge protector is critical (it is lightening at my house as I write this), and for just a few extra bucks I also have noise reduction .... which does come in handy as the lightening strikes the cable line a few miles from the house and produces all that garbage that I no longer view or hear. Why spend $20 on a surge protector when $50 gets the surge protector and line conditioner?


2. Room size .... why bother having a nice pair of Martin Logans in a room no bigger than a closet?

3. Speakers

4. Room Acoustics. Great room acoustics with crappy speakers, still equals crappy sound, and room acoustics can be improved in the installment plan with WAF furnishings and decor.

5. Video display proportional to the quality of the source player. Having a mega buck 100" plasma screen is a waste of money if your source is a 20 year old VCR.

6. Electronics (receiver, dvd etc) proportional in quality and capability. Again, no Denon AVR 5806 being matched with a Awia MP3 player.

7. Interconnects. Good fitting RCA's are critical. And a little insulation never hurts either. Rat Shack and Wally World are great sources to keep the budge under $100 for a whole fist full of decent interconnects.

8. A decent rack to hold the goodies. Say after me.... "heat is my enemy" and repeat as often as necessary in order to doctrinate the W or GF that a clunky rack is more important than matching pillows on the sofa.

 

[aceclown]

Now that I have spent an enormous amount of time on this site my vote goes towards room acoustics.

In my eyes it does not matter how good your speakers or other somponets are. If you have bad acoustics your system will sound poor.

I have spent around 400 dollars on room treatments and it has made me re-evaluate everything about audio. It showed me you DO NOT have to spend vast amounts of money on gear to get stellar sound.

The room dictates everything. After this speakers would be the next thing.

1. Room
2. Speakers
3. Amp / Receiver
4. Source - I use to think this was the most important aspect. But with the players out there today you dont have to spend much.

What exactly did you buy, and what problems were you having acoustically?

 

[Yamahaluver]

Speakers, not only are they expensive, but you have to live with them for quite a while, also it is important to have speakers that you like, not others, the sound coming from them have to appeal to you itself, not some reviewer who might have a totally different perception of what is good and accurate than you have.

My next priority would be amp and room acoustics.

 

[mnnc]

1. Your ears
2. $
3. Electricity
4. Dwelling
5. Data source...cd...dvd
6. Spkr's
7. Amplification
8. Source player
9. Spkr wire and...
10. Cables

 

[Bryce_H]

Your eyes and ears - as long as it looks good and sounds good to you, then it is all right

 

[Jase]

The Source, as in the actual CD, DVD etc. If that's poorly mastered to start with then it won't matter how good the rest of your system is.

 

[Rob Babcock]

So who picked cables? Let me guess- it's gotta be Mtrycrafts or WmAX!

 

[baldbear]

Wow,

I would have to say Amp over Speakers. What good are speakers if you have a cheap Amp. A good Amp can make cheap speakers perform, however a cheap Amp won't do anything for a great pair of speakers.

 

[avliner]

Amp over Speakers

Wow,

I would have to say Amp over Speakers. What good are speakers if you have a cheap Amp. A good Amp can make cheap speakers perform, however a cheap Amp won't do anything for a great pair of speakers.

Would agree with baldbear. A high-end amp/processor basically makes any crappy speakers shine much more than average; however a paramount set of speakers plugged into a junky amp will sound basically normal.

Avliner

 

[Privateer]

9. Spkr wire and...
10. Cables

You are way off there.

 

[amadeo]

a high end speaker would do wounders to any of your cd collection
so i would have to say an out of this world speaker ...and then i would have to say a combo of both a great receiver and power amp

 

[shokhead]

Would agree with baldbear. A high-end amp/processor basically makes any crappy speakers shine much more than average; however a paramount set of speakers plugged into a junky amp will sound basically normal.

Nothing will make crappy speakers shine.