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What makes biggest difference in sound

What makes biggest difference in sound quality?

  • Speakers and room

  • Amplifiers, preamplifiers, cables

  • Audio format (mp3, CD, dsd, mqa...) And dacs

  • Room only


Results are only viewable after voting.
These days with a digital source the speakers are by far a bigger change and need to be equalized with parametric equalization or at least equalization. Are you using a PC for a source?
 
Speakers and Rooms may have been better separated... combined together, the results should be interesting.
Thank you.
These days with a digital source the speakers are by far a bigger change and need to be equalized with parametric equalization or at least equalization. Are you using a PC for a source?
I equalized my hearing so that I don't have to futz around equalizing for speakers and the room.:eek:
 
Speakers and Rooms may have been better separated... combined together, the results should be interesting.
Thank you.

I equalized my hearing so that I don't have to futz around equalizing for speakers and the room.:eek:
PuFF... PuFF... pass... pass... over to @pseudoid. LoL.
 
I would have enjoyed separate lines for speakers and room.
 
I also got accused of whiskey earlier.. twice. Spies must have infiltrated my vidcam.
I am waiting for uppers or downers or microdosing accusations soon.;)
H2O and espresso suffices!
 
In my experience, A receiver/amp makes the biggest difference. I mean if amps didn't matter, we all would be using amps like the Kinter MA170+. I dealt with a chunk of amps that have varying characteristics: Power, Clarity, Noise, Stability, DSP.

If I had a 2nd vote, I would also vote for "Speakers and Rooms" but my 1st vote will still remain for "Amps". It's pretty hard to pick a bad speaker and bad DAC these days. If your speakers are built/perform good enough, you can run them without any EQ like the "ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2". Speakers are like Cars, you know. If you pay a good amount, you'll have a car that performs well without any tuning/mods (Just buy and punch the throttle) but you'll get some grease monkey talking your ear off about how you can tune/map the engine, change out this and that to make more power.

I still feel half and half about "Sources" being my 1st vote. Its all genre & year dependent. When it comes to FLAC streaming services, If you listen to a song that comes directly from that release album, chances are that it's gonna sound decent to good (If its 70s and 80s, possibly 90s). 50s and 60s "pop/rock" music most of the time is on compilation albums.
 
In my experience, A receiver/amp makes the biggest difference. I mean if amps didn't matter, we all would be using amps like the Kinter MA170+.
So you think that this:
1694239066514.jpeg

Vs this:
1694239208189.jpeg


Makes more difference than this:
1694239388189.jpeg

Vs this:
1694239461582.jpeg

?
 
I'm not saying you should spend more on an amp compared to the price of your speakers. I'm saying that you shouldn't spend $15 on an amp instead spend that on a $300 or less amp.
Neither should you buy a $15 speaker..

To reflect back at you:
I mean if amps didn't matter, we all would be using amps like the Kinter MA170+.
I mean, if speakers didn’t matter, we all would be using a <<insert super cheap crappy speaker model>>.

See, I can do that as well ;)
 
Neither should you buy a $15 speaker..

To reflect back at you:

I mean, if speakers didn’t matter, we all would be using a <<insert super cheap crappy speaker model>>.

See, I can do that as well ;)
Far point.
 
I voted for room.

Even the best speakers will sound terrible in a terrible room.
 
Anyone noticed, that tone correction makes a difference? :)

Seriously: room and speakers, EQ and DRC.
 
Well I woted first and room at the first place. Deacent speakers can be EQ-ed to sound fairly nice with a sub or two in a not horrible room. Of course size of speakers and sub's depends on size space they they need to feel and towards proper calibration SPL (86~88 dB white noise stereo or 83~85 dB mono) and mile or two more for those who want it really, really loud of course. This doesn't mean I am keen on skipping corners with anything else especially which helps with room and proper fine behaving components all the way, just that I don’t chase imaginary perfect end game one's.
 
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I think the poll would be more meaningful, if we add the "excluding obviously incompetent designs / clearly sub-par quality products / clearly outdated concepts" reservation.

Everything can be made to sound really bad, but considering what is commonly available today at reasonable cost, I think it is safe to say that modern amplifiers, DACs and audio formats are good enough and cables were really never a problem. That leaves room acoustics, speakers and headphones as the ones where a significant difference can be found (and let's add turntable cartridges to those of us who insist on vinyl format).
 
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