Roy from Valley Village calls to debate whether speakers or electronics matter more in high-end audio. The host argues electronics win, citing a friend's $15,000 speakers paired with $100,000 in gear that matched $45,000 speakers, proving the signal chain is what counts.
Oh, ladies and gentlemen, I am preparing you in advance for an impassioned, angry debate with a caller. The following call is wrong. Trigger warning. Roy, Valley Village, I presume California.
That's correct.
Poor Roy. All right, let the drummer go. Yeah, go ahead.
Yes, Valley Village, California. Not impassioned, but disagreeing.
No, no, I was kidding about it. Go ahead.
A couple of weeks ago, you said that electronics in a sound system, an audio system, are more important, or most important perhaps, than the loudspeakers. I disagree.
Well, it shows that even a kind, music-loving, bright man can be wrong. And I'm referring to you. Listen, I have— my system is living proof, but I will give you just a simple— you don't have to be an audiophile to understand this— garbage in, garbage out. All, basically all speakers today are good. Some are great, no question. But it all depends. I tell you a simple experiment. A friend of mine has $15,000 speakers, which sounds like a fortune to most everybody listening now, but for audiophiles, that is a bargain speaker. $15,000 speakers, obviously not each, but for the two. And I, I put them in a system with $100,000 of electronics. Well, the speakers were of a different category. One did not know how great they were, and they rivaled speakers costing $45,000. So I am— I have lived the— this realization that electronics are more important than speakers. What goes in is what matters. You can't be better than the signal that goes in.
I don't disagree with that.
All right. Well, anyway, listen, thank you. I would continue more, but I want to keep my listeners.
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