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Buying Speakers
Choosing speakers is a difficult decision, speaker design is a compromise between price, size, sound quality … it is also a matter of taste. These are some areas to consider when looking at speakers.
Price
Obviously this is down to what you can afford. Set yourself a budget, I guess on average the people I talk to tend to spend £500-£1500 on a pair of speakers. There are different theories about how much money you should spend on different components, for example some people advocate spending more on the components closer to the source, i.e. cd players, turntables etc. and spending relatively little on speakers. I don’t go along with this quite so much and prefer to ensure all links in the chain are of a similar quality. Bigger speakers tend to cost more than smaller speakers, but don’t forget small speakers will often require stands which can also cost a bit.
Overall Sound and what are your preferences?
Smaller speakers tend to give a more precise sound with excellent imaging and beautifully tight top end. They may lack a bit on the bottom end and you might find that you are loosing some of the subtleties of the bass notes, for example you will hear a bass sound but won’t be able to distinguish the different bass notes. Smaller speakers can be a bit punchy and not so smooth.
Bigger speakers allow for larger and bigger selection of drivers, with means the manufactures can split the signal from the amplifier and use drivers which are specifically made for different frequencies. Large speakers with big bass drivers, for example 10” or 12“, should give a deep soft bass that seems to come from nowhere and gives the music lots of depth. You may find larger speakers sound a bit woollier in comparison to small speakers.
Personally I prefer larger floorstanders with 10” or 12” bass drivers and am prepared to loose some of the right top end for better and smoother bottom end.
Size
Will they fit in your room and where will they be positioned!
If the speakers are ported i.e. have a vent hole in them check where this is. If the vent hole is at the rear then the speakers will need to be positioned away from the wall by 12” – 24”
Aesthetics
What do they look like and in some cases what can you “get away with” having in your living room! Some speakers are huge, some very ugly, some just look like boxes. The look of the speaker may not have anything to do with sound quality but is something to you should consider. Some speakers are beautifully crafted pieces of “furniture” and complement their settings.
Technical Stuff to check (there is a longer description of some of these terms in the Technical Jargon pages)
- Sensitivity
This is a measure of the volume of sound a speaker can produce for 1 watt of input (at 1 metre away). So the more sensitive the speaker is the more sound it will produce for less power. This is worth bearing in mind if you are looking at using speakers with a relatively low sensitivity (85-88db) with a single ended valve amp. More sensitive speakers tend to cost more, but I would try and aim for above 88 or 89 db.
- Frequency response
This is the range of sound a speaker can produce from the lowest bass sound to the highest treble. The bigger the range the better, however, the average human ear can only hear between 20Hz to 20kHz.
You might find small speakers are quoted at 45Hz – 40kHz so you can see there are some bass sounds below 45Hz the speaker isn’t producing.
- Total harmonic distortion
This is the amount of distortion the speaker is adding to the sound at a certain frequency and volume. The smaller this value is the better.
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