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Which component has the biggest effect on the sound?

Hepokatti said:
It would be completely viable to claim that interconnects make the most difference, or that speakers don't make a difference at all.
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Viable (comparative more viable, superlative most viable)
  1. Able to live on its own (as for a newborn.)
  2. Able to be done, possible.
  3. In (biology), able to live and develop.

It is of course completely possible to claim that interconnects make the most difference, or that speakers don't make a difference at all, and clearly that claim can take on a life of it's own. That has nothing to do with whether the claim is true or not.
 
Oh no I spake engrish, and the language police caught me :(

Did you get what I meant? I simply tried to say; the amount of difference each component makes depends on circumstances.

I wasn't directly trying to imply that interconnects could make the biggest difference in every case, but they COULD make the biggest positive difference - given the circumstances. If you don't believe in interconnects making difference, then swap that component with something else that often makes minor/no difference. My point stays the same.

EDIT: To further clarify - why would someone swap speakers that offer virtually flat response from bottom to top, low distortion, sufficient SPL etc. in a given room? Sure one can swap them and expect a difference, but I don't think anyone's interested on principal talking about DIFFERENCES per se, but rather improvements. If we talk differences, then they can be achieved ie. by kicking your woofers in.. thus it would make more sense to discuss positive/lateral differences instead of "just" differences.
 
Hepokatti said:
Oh no I spake engrish, and the language police caught me :(
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While English is my third language (Swedish and Finnish) being the first ones, I am married to an English teacher, it wasn't your language but the exact meaning of your statement that I was reacting to.

Did you get what I meant? I simply tried to say; the amount of difference each component makes depends on circumstances.
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While that statement is technically true, sometimes those circumstances are so rare that it is more likely that you would be hit by a bus.

I wasn't directly trying to imply that interconnects could make the biggest difference in every case, but they COULD make the biggest positive difference - given the circumstances.
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Yes - given a very badly designed amp, in a very electrically noisy environment, for example.

EDIT: To further clarify - why would someone swap speakers that offer virtually flat response from bottom to top, low distortion, sufficient SPL etc. in a given room? Sure one can swap them and expect a difference, but I don't think anyone's interested on principal talking about DIFFERENCES per se, but rather improvements. If we talk differences, then they can be achieved ie. by kicking your woofers in.. thus it would make more sense to discuss positive/lateral differences instead of "just" differences.
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The speaker (if we ignore the room) is still the component that makes the most significant contribution to the colour of the sound (OK, some analog front-ends and some bad tube designs are bad enough to almost equal speakers in that respect). I haven't seen a speaker that really offers "virtually flat response from bottom to top" or really low distortion at sufficient SPL. Thus speakers are the most "taste-sensitive" components, and choice is really dictated by your taste.
 
Even worse: there is even no agreement in industry or academic circles what exactly constitutes the ideal/perfect loudspeaker for domestic reproduction of two-channel music.
 
Julf said:
While English is my third language (Swedish and Finnish) being the first ones, I am married to an English teacher,.......
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Sorry, JULF; nothing to do with hifi, but I'm quite intrigued by the above. Is your wife also a teacher of English [language], which is somewhat different?

I have a feeling that Finnish is vaguely allied to Hungarian; a different linguistic strain from Scandinavian/Nordic languages, so 3 very different languages. I stand to be corrected, of course.:)
 
Mike Reed said:
Sorry, JULF; nothing to do with hifi, but I'm quite intrigued by the above. Is your wife also a teacher of English [language], which is somewhat different?
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Ah, yes, I actually mis-wrote. She is American, and teaches English (literature). We live in Holland, where the natives at least occasionally speak Dutch (my 5th language, her 3rd), so it is complicated... :)

I have a feeling that Finnish is vaguely allied to Hungarian; a different linguistic strain from Scandinavian/Nordic languages, so 3 very different languages. I stand to be corrected, of course.:)
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Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic) are closely related Germanic languages. Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are Uralic languages - totally different from Germanic languages. How about 15 noun cases?

Aren't you glad you asked, Mike? :)
 
Watching The Bridge recently on TV, it was pleasing to hear the odd phrase like "got an address?" come through identical.
 
Though it's tempting to say 'speakers', I'd say source - and I mean that in the strictest sense, i.e. the recording. A duff recording is a duff recording, no matter what you replay it on further downstream. Many's the recording that's been ruined by ham-fisted production, overkill compression or any number of studio crimes....

Though if we are talking of the biggest influence on the playback of a CD or record, say, then it's probably speakers, although I think this varies depending on playback volume. For low levels, it's probably source rather than speakers.
 
Ah.... I see this thread has moved on somewhat. Shoulda oughta have read it to the end to see to which unlikely spot it had digressed. My, as it were, bad.
 
JTC said:
Ah.... I see this thread has moved on somewhat. Shoulda oughta have read it to the end to see to which unlikely spot it had digressed. My, as it were, bad.
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Indeed. How many languages do you speak? Can you follow The Bridge without subtitles? What does 'viable' mean?
 
Joe Hutch said:
Indeed. How many languages do you speak? Can you follow The Bridge without subtitles? What does 'viable' mean?
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My apologies for my part in taking the thread further off topic. Some times mentioning the number of languages is not actually to brag, but to illustrate that things are complicated, and issues of language and culture have to be taken into account. In most of europe having to speak 3 or 5 languages is the norm, not the exception.

Yes, I can follow The Bridge without subtitles, but I am not sure I can get through the whole thing without having to get really drunk and then jump from a bridge.

I am not sure it is viable to ask for the viability of 'viable'.
 
Joe Hutch said:
Indeed. How many languages do you speak? Can you follow The Bridge without subtitles? What does 'viable' mean?
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I can't follow The Bridge WITH subtitles, never mind without.... Much as I love my Nordic Noir, the red wine I consume in tandem with my televisual bouts tends to work in opposition to my ability to make it through the second hour...

Viable. That means something that can be edited with an archaic but popular text editor.

Tak.
 
obscure vi key commands. 's all. Just to illustrate how far this thread has come from being a sensible discussion on component influence....
 
Julf said:
Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic) are closely related Germanic languages. Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are Uralic languages - totally different from Germanic languages. How about 15 noun cases?

Aren't you glad you asked, Mike? :)
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Ta ! Didn't know about the Estonian.

I have a nagging feeling that I may be to blame for the fragmentation of this thread. :(. So much for the quest for knowledge.........
 
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