How to Pick the Right Loudspeakers

Here at Audioholics, we get into some pretty advanced topics. The measurements fly back and forth and people take sides on their favorite arguments.

We all love it.

But one thing we often overlook is that we’re the ones that other people turn to when they have questions about home entertainment gear. In our respective circles of friends and family, we’re regarded as the experts. “Ask Joe; he’ll know.”

So even though all this is second-nature to us and we have high-current RMS watts flowing through our veins, our brother-in-law who is contemplating a simple speaker purchase, needs to know some basic information so he can make a reasonably intelligent decision, all by himself.

With that in mind, here is a simple, direct (but accurate) explanation, suitable for the great unwashed, about everything they need to know about choosing speakers for themselves. Just print this out and hand it to them. It even has nice pictures. Your brother-in-law will be so grateful that he’ll buy you dinner (for once!) and you’ll look like the pro that you are for explaining it so clearly and thoroughly.

Here goes:

Picking the Right Speakers

This is something that many people don’t think about too often—Hey, they’re only speakers, right?—but picking the right speakers for your home entertainment needs could be the most important leisure-time decision you’ll make. Great sound makes music emotionally-involving and exciting; great sound makes your big screen feel like a trip to the local movie theater. In any context, great sound as delivered by the right speakers makes a world of difference in your overall enjoyment and satisfaction.

The first thing you have to do is determine why you need speakers in the first place—how are they going to be used, what role will they play in your daily activities around your home, where do you plan on putting them, how much space do you have or are willing to devote to them? Identify your goals first.

Speakers come in different formats:

• Separate component speakers are used in traditional hi-fi music and high-end home theater systems, and in “whole house” distributed audio systems

• Soundbars augment and improve on the small, tinny-sounding speakers built into today’s ultra-thin TVs

• Docking station speakers allow you to connect your iPod, iPhone, iPad or other portable device and get louder, clearer sound than you can from the iPad’s little speakers, or get sound that everyone can hear from devices that only use headphones

Let’s look at each category individually and give some more details about each one, so you can see if this is the direction you’re leaning.