What Hifi component should be the first priority?

[Jasonovich]

Back in the day, when people wore flared collars on their shirts, when Joan Collins was never seen without her shoulder pads, when dinosaurs turntables roamed the pages of What Hifi.

It was the view that the source was key component of your Hifi.
What comes through the window (your source component) is what is excreted out from your speaker.
Rubbish in is rubbish out
Back then, there was so much emphasis on your turntable as this was likely to be the primary source component.

Nowadays the message is rather diluted.
It appears to have shifted away to the amplifier and speakers.

Trying to avoid answering my own question, digital sourced medium isn't so critical as setting up as it is with vinyl but now that we have a renaissance, more people getting into vinyl.

Should we start going back to the basic principles, what goes in is what goes out?

Your thoughts on this please 🙂

 

[Kenneth Fernandes]

Is it difficult to launch an all in one digital mixing console at the Studio end and mix, monitor, record and master full digitally without any analog feedback or monitoring?
It’s absolutely possible and are already in the making and will be put in practice anytime soon.
So, the renaissance of going bank to vinyl listening now is irrelevant.

 

[jjbomber]

Your ears!

 

[Gray]

Is it difficult to launch an all in one digital mixing console at the Studio end and mix, monitor, record and master full digitally without any analog feedback or monitoring?

Difficult? Impossible more like.

For singers and listeners at least, analogue will always be involved in and out of mics and speakers.
And regardless of any fancy or 'perfect' intermediate digital cleverness, the sound will only be as good as those transducers will allow.

In answer to the thread title, I reckon most people now will say that speakers should be the priority (subject to appropriate room and driving amp being up to the tasks).

 

[Al ears]

Difficult? Impossible more like.

For singers and listeners at least, analogue will always be involved in and out of mics and speakers.
And regardless of any fancy or 'perfect' intermediate digital cleverness, the sound will only be as good as those transducers will allow.

In answer to the thread title, I reckon most people now will say that speakers should be the priority (subject to appropriate room and driving amp being up to the tasks).

My thoughts exactly.
The wrong speakers will make a mockery of the garbage in / garbage out theory.
With vinyl it was a different matter. Getting a good cartridge / tonearm was essential to extract the most you could from those grooves, however with digital input there is little you can do to improve the quality of the incoming data so source is no longer the main priority.

 

[Shrek]

My thoughts exactly.
The wrong speakers will make a mockery of the garbage in / garbage out theory.
With vinyl it was a different matter. Getting a good cartridge / tonearm was essential to extract the most you could from those grooves, however with digital input there is little you can do to improve the quality of the incoming data so source is no longer the main priority.

A faster relaiable ISP will improve sound and picture quality with Digital .

 

[Fandango Andy]

The simple answer is that its all about balance, a system is only as good as the weakest element. Over time different components have gone up in price at different rates, so you can't necessarily differentiate by price alone. At the turn of the century there were several great entry level amps for around £150, a matching CD player would cost about the same and a pair of speakers would be about the same again.

If you want to buy a modern equivalent today, the amp will be £350 to £400. The CD player would be replaced my a streamer such as a WiiM Mini for £80 to £90. The speakers could be anything from £200 to £600. However, if you only have one source do you need a traditional amp with lots inputs? all of a sudden you have the option of a small Class D amp such as those made by Fosi Audio.

It still all boils down to how it sounds!

 

[RTHerringbone]

A good source can sound great with the right amp / speaker pairing, but a bad source can't really be masked. So source is probably still key, but it can't be fully appreciated unless given the right supporting cast.

On that basis, I think it probably makes sense to get those source(s) nailed down first and then when you *know* one piece of the puzzle is in place, you can start shuffling tiles to get the amp and speakers to match.

But the journey is the fun part.

 

[Jasonovich]

The simple answer is that its all about balance, a system is only as good as the weakest element. Over time different components have gone up in price at different rates, so you can't necessarily differentiate by price alone. At the turn of the century there were several great entry level amps for around £150, a matching CD player would cost about the same and a pair of speakers would be about the same again.

If you want to buy a modern equivalent today, the amp will be £350 to £400. The CD player would be replaced my a streamer such as a WiiM Mini for £80 to £90. The speakers could be anything from £200 to £600. However, if you only have one source do you need a traditional amp with lots inputs? all of a sudden you have the option of a small Class D amp such as those made by Fosi Audio.

It still all boils down to how it sounds!

I'm veering towards a balanced system.
A well design amp will deliver the source faithfully and the juggling act is finding a speaker that compliments the sonic characteristics of the amp.
😌