[miklorsmith]

How do you interpret this word and what does it mean in your own system?

[mcgsxr]

For me, it is when the parts involved sound best in concert with each other, and in different combinations, a less pleasing result is found.

I have been through 5 amps with my b200 speakers, and the JVC EX-A1 and Magnavox single ended tube amp are the best sounding with my Bolder SB3 front end.

Maggie sounds best, JVC is dead simplest for monkeyproof use.

[robert1325]

When my system sounds musical to my ears   

There's nothing in audio that's worse than the booming, grating, boring sound of a wrongly synergized system.

[95bcwh]

"System synergy" = What sounds best to your ear, and it is subjective

Now, allow me to use an analogy here, I don't claim to be an expert in audio science, so don't attack me for over-simplifying things:

Each of us has different ears, and the sound that we like can be expressed in a frequency response curve (from 0kHz - 20kHz). (ok, I'm oversimplying things)

Now, every piece of equipment in our system (CDP, preamp, cable, amp, speaker, room) does not put out a flat response. e.g. Tube amps tends to have a little bit of "bump" in the midrange than solid-state amps. e.g. Cables tend to act like filters.

When we put all these in a chain, what we get is a superimpose of different response curves, and then our ears serves as the final filter before it gets into our brain. Let's call what gets into our brain the "target curve".

The point is, different people like different target curves, and there're more than one way to achieve that target. So "system synergy" simply means you have find the right mix of equipments and room treatment to provide you with the target curve that sound best to your ear. At the mean time, others may not care for your target curve at all.

[aerius]

System synergy is like baking a cake.  You take the raw ingredients, mix them together, and bake'em into a cake which will hopefully be tasty for you.  Some people might want a sweeter cake, some with more chocolate, others with more raisins & frosting, who knows?  And you could start with the "best" flour, sugar, eggs, and other ingredients that money can buy, but if you mix or bake it wrong it'll still taste like crap.  Or you could start from stuff from the dollar store and through skill & experience come up with a wonderful cake.  That's synergy, putting all the right pieces together at the right time in the right way to make you happy.

[woodsyi]

On the technical side, you have matching amps and speakers in terms of power and sensitivity, source output and preamp/amp input impedance, cartridge compliance and tonearm mass, cartridge resistance and loading impedance, and dare I say cable capacitance/inductance to name a few.  On the subjective side, you have different characteristic sound associated with certain type of gears in general, but the real synergy to me means the head scratching findings I get when a certain combination of gear including cables (not always the more expensive) just sounds better for for no apparent reasons beyond the technical aspects as mentioned above.  That is why AC and other boards are handy in hearing other's experience of finding good combinations.  They give you ideas to keep fiddling. 

[Thebiker]

I run 2 different tube based systems, both built around a tube integrated, one Manley Stingray and one Cary SLI-80.  They are currently set up with the Stingray pushing a pair of JM Lab Cobalt 816s connected with Kimber 8TC speaker cable.  Sounds wonderful. 
I put the Cary in place of the Stingray and lost soundstage and air and the treble was over-emphasized, and I run both amps in the triode mode.  Put the Stingray back in and all was wonderful again.

The Cary is set up with a pair of Paradigm Ref Studio 20s and Cobalt cable. 
Cheaper cable, cheaper speakers, but the sound is almost magical. 
Why, system synergy.  The right combinations will always give the best sound, and the $ is not the deciding factor (of course it helps ).  That's why it is so important to try any new component with your own gear.  If a shop won't loan it you to try, take your amp or speakers to the shop.  If they won't accommodate that, find a shop that will or check with other folks in your area.  That's one of the great things about this type of forum, enthusiasts always love to show off their gear.

[TONEPUB]

Definitely when all the pieces work together really well.
The gear, the setup and the room.

It's always a hard thing to nail down, but hopefully when
you have it right, when you are listening, you are just
enjoying your system, not thinking in the background
"I wish it did this, I don't like that, etc...."

[Soundbitten]

synergy can be balancing out one componant's excess with another's opposite.

[acresm22]

I have been through 5 amps with my b200 speakers, and the JVC EX-A1 and Magnavox single ended tube amp are the best sounding with my Bolder SB3 front end.

Maggie sounds best, JVC is dead simplest for monkeyproof use.

Hey Mark, can you give some more information on your Magnavox SE amp? Is it an EL84 amp, and so putting out about 3 watts in SE mode? Extensively modded, or basically stock? Thx.

A.

[mcgsxr]

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=31096.0

This link tells most of the story.  EL84, single ended, console pull, likely 50+ years old, mainly stock, but someone added a power switch, a power LED, and a captive (and fused) power cable.  Yes, SEP, so somewhere around 2-6wpc.

I have bought the relevant Sonicaps for the signal path, and I do intend to have the canned electrolytic caps replaced, but at present, basically running stock.