What is the stereo amp's contribution to sound quality?

pmarc

Is it 80% speakers, 20% amp? Or what? I'm buy high-end home speakers so I need to optimize price with quality for the amp. Don't want to over-buy.

Ugg10

Typical advice is to spend equal amounts on each box I.e.

1xamp
1xsource
2xspeakers

But this is only a guide, you can stretch the source a bit if you are looking at vinyl (more scope for improvement with cartridges and tonearms).

So if you hade £1000, £250 on amp, £250 on source, £500 on speakers, roughly.

I have found, in decreasing effect on sound, are -

Room/speaker positioning, speakers, recording quality of data, preamp (including in integrated), analogue source, power amplifier (including in integrated), digital source, cables.

For amps, the key is buying one with a good power supply with a good size transformers and enough capacitance to deal with large swings in music dynamic volume.

Finally, best advice is to audition and let your ears decide, preferably in your home if you can.

BlueWizard

I tend to agree, this is how I break down a Stereo System -

1x - 1.5x = Turntable
1x = Network Streaming
1x = Media Player (CD...)
1x = Amp/Receiver
2x = Speakers

Just pick the components, add up the "X"s, and divide into the budget.

If you have £2000 to spend and you need CD, Amp, Speakers, that is 4x's
£2000/4 = £500. So, each "X" is £500 -

£_500 = CD Player
£_500 = Amp/Receiver
£1000 = Speaker Pair

Then as a further generalization, estimate about 5% (£100) of that for All Wire and Cable.

Generally this does not hold in the final purchase, but it gives you a starting perspective. From that you are free to deviate or modify based on your personal preference and the equipment you find.

You also want to consider the Features you want from the Amp/Receiver -

- AM/FM? DAB/DAB ?
- Tone Controls?
- Phono In?
- Sub-Out?
- Bass Management?
- Network Streaming?
- Amount of Power?
- Other?

This will narrow down the field of Amps considerably.

Can you tell us what the speaker are, and what your working budget is?

Steve/bluewizard

musicphil

Personally if you are spending a small amount on a system say £1000 and buying only a cd player amp and speakers i would say equal amounts on each item.
As the amount you spend then increases on a system so does the amount you spend directly on speakers increases. So £4000 i would say would end up close to. CD player £1000, amp £1000 and £2000 on speakers.
If you are adding a turntable into the mix then its something else.
As good as speakers may be, they cannot add what is already missing on the front end. There used to be a saying crap in crap out.
A balanced system is all that is required and it has to sound good to you.

larkone

Speakers and amps (or any other part of the system) should not add anything to 'sound quality', rather they should not take anything away from the original signal.

martimu

What speakers are you looking at, sounds like you've chosen these already? - other parts may vary depending on the specs of your speakers.

ShanePJ

As with all systems, the room and placement of speakers can either make or break a system. If you have the perfect room with the perfect system, but place your speakers withing a cabinet, then that speaker is always going to sound like a box within a box. If you use rear ported speakers, and you place them to close or far away from the wall, this will effect the speakers too, so you really need to work with the equipment in your room

Having heard many systems, it always surprises me how good you can make a cheap system where as an expensive setup can sometimes be a little more fussy with other components

I usually say that the rule is what you enjoy. Yes using a £3k stereo amp when pairing it with speakers costing only £500 is a little daft, however you will squeeze every ounce of life out of them, but having said that, they won't give you all the information available either just everything they can deliver

Sometimes you can add components together into a room which just work making you ignore reason too, which is also why I say its what you enjoy

I would say, if your looking at a PM6006SE, adding a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 200 speakers would be as far as I would like to go if you are going to really drive these speakers hard whereas if you are going to use them for easy listening, then you could move to the Silver 300. I do however feel that using speakers around the 1.5x value of the original release price should be a good indicator. This would put the Kef Q550 somewhere in the right ball park to create a balances starting point.

But if you refer to my comments above, if you enjoy it, who cares what others think as it's only purpose is to impress you and if you do find a sound that impresses you more which doesn't follow this path, who cares if you enjoy it

BlueWizard

This is another point I was going to make but didn't. On the higher and lower end of the budget spectrum, you can't really hold to the ratios I described.

But that comes out in the equipment you find when you are searching within your budget range.

If you want actual recommendations, give us a working budget, even if it is, at this time, hypothetical.

But as a generalization, I stand by the ratios I made for equipment. Generally Amp at half the cost of speakers, and Source components roughly equal to the Amp.

CD Player = roughly £200 to £300
Turntable = roughly £250 to £350
Amp/Receiver = roughly £300 with Network Streaming
Speakers = while there are good speakers in the £300 to £500 range, better speakers are in the £500 to £1500 per pair range.

Though realistically in every category, the sky is the limit.

Steve/bluewizard

SickSquirrel

My systems over the years tend to end up with amp & speakers roughly the same and the main source about half the price of the speakers.  ie £3k amp, £3k speakers and £1.5k source. Before dealer discount...

For me the speakers are the most important part of the system bar none...

madfiddler

This is a really useful discussion for me as I’m wanting to replace amp and speakers likely at the same time in my system. I wouldn’t say money is no object but I’m not opposed to spending a few grand if it gets me to what would likely be the final  kit i‘d buy (ideally)

I‘m somewhat restricted in space for speakers however I can contend with smaller floorstanders. Finding a home for bookshelf’s in my room actually is harder, Had considered second hand PMC GB1i for example but also MA Silver 200. On the amp side of things I like the idea of an all-in integrated with streaming capabilities, so had considered nad c368/388 with the BluOS module, and even all new Arcam SA30 ( but the price, ouch!). also considered Yamaha AS-1100 plus streamer but the darn thing is really too big physically for me. From what you guys are saying from a price perspective are you suggesting that’s all too much amp for the speakers I’d looked at?

pmarc - hope you don’t mind me asking? I don’t want to threadjack