What %age of the sound experience is the speakers, room, amplification, source material, wires, Streaming etc?

[rwnano]

80: Speakers
10: Room+amplification
10: Source + wires etc?

Curious to hear everyone's opinions on the same...
How important, in terms of percentage, is each component?

 

[reignofchaos]

This is a very open ended question and completely depends on your equipment. There is no right or wrong answer!

If you have a TAD as your main speaker, you'd need to spend a significant amount on cables. If you have an entry level wharfedale, you'd manage with something reasonable.

 

[chander]

Oh these generally get very interesting these ones.

I would say -
24% Speakers
24% Room
2% Everything else
50% You

 

[COOLDUDE7808]

35 : Speakers
35: amplification
20 : Source
10: Interconnects and Speaker Wires

In case you opt for streaming . Room Correction software in Amp will take care of the rest . Anyway , I am not a great believer in spending for so called acoustics . Just spend that on getting a better equipment .

I have always been told that speakers are very important . But when they are underpowered , because you decided to spend less on a amp then you don't get the full benefit of those speakers . Importance of good source material can be understood by playing a CD on a dedicate CD player like Marantz vis a vis some DVD player or Bluetooth . Incase the source is only streaming then it may not matter much .

 

[Phani24]

40 percent room
30 percent speakers
20 Source
10 perecent cables

 

[vinothkumar]

I wouldn’t recommend allocating a fixed percentage to each component. Instead, I’d suggest the following approach:

1. Start with your budget – define your upper limit clearly.
2. Choose your speaker brand based on your musical preferences. Each brand embodies a distinct design philosophy: some prioritize tonal richness, texture, dynamics, and emotional engagement, while others focus on audiophile traits like imaging precision, spatial layering, airiness, or transient speed. There’s a broad spectrum, each with its own sonic identity.
3. Select the appropriate speaker size from your chosen brand, keeping your room dimensions and listening distance in mind.
4. Match the amplifier carefully to your speakers in terms of both power and synergy.
5. The rest of the system—source components and cables—should align with the level and character of the speakers and amplifier you’ve chosen.

In short, instead of %, I am recommending priorities in order:
Speakers > Amplifier > Source > Cables

When you are truly deep into your setup, you will give equal importance to every bits and pieces in the system.

 

[hydra]

IMHO:

- The Room (and so proper speaker placement, and appropriate room treatment) makes the biggest difference.

- The Speakers are the next most important, then the Source, and then the Cables.

But as reignofchaos said, all this depends on the actual equipment used. With something like a Kii Seven or with a very capable DSP (and well implemented room correction software) the room could be taken out of the equation.

 

[heliumflight]

Frontend is "King"

 

[Hari Iyer]

20% - Amplifier
20% - speakers
20% - all cables ( spkr, power, IC)
20% - Source
20% - Room

All IME