Rule of thumb for rotel equipment & speaker cost

[wasabichondro]

The question I am raising is, in general what do you personally feel is a good amount to spend on your receiver or pre/pro in relation to your speakers.

The RSX-1057 powering my 5 speakers was 22% of the price of my speakers.

I was wondering you thoughts. I was looking at going to a used classe amplifier and realized spending more on my amp than all of my speaker combined did not seem like a good idea?

[hurin]

Spending more on the amp than on the speakers does sound wrong, and using a Class A amp for the rear speakers is complete overkill. Unless you're an absolutely no compromise guy, I would stay far away from Class A amps. You can get good Class A/B amps for a fraction of the cost.

I have an RB 1080 connected to a set of Vienna Mahler, and it performs like a dream. Try looking for a used RMB 1095.

[hifiguymi]

The amp he is talking about is not a class A amp, it's the brand Classe. It wouldn't matter if it was a class A amp anyway.

As for the original question, I say go for it. A really good amp would do wonderful things for the speakers you have and give you a lot of flexibility to upgrade speakers down the road. You would be amazed how much info you can get from a speaker system with a really good amp.

Eric

[technodanvan]

Personally I think you're on the right track already, as far as I'm concerned the primary cost in a system should be devoted to the speakers above everything else. They will of course only be as good as what they're attached to, however speakers will make the most dramatic change in your system hands down.

If you need more power I would try something a bit less expensive first to see what kind of difference you can get. Spending more on an amp than on the remainder of the system is just kinda...dumb (to me).