How To Choose The Right Main Speakers For Your Home Theater
Jul 11 '01
The Bottom Line Read my 'Conclusion'
Whenever I buy or look at new main speakers, there's only one kind that I look at. They are floor standing speakers. Why??? Because bookshelf speakers just don't cut it. Floor standing speakers usually have much more raw power, more drivers, and simply superior sound. Here's my guide to floor standing speakers:
-Multi-Way Speakers-
*One of the main characteristics of main speakers are that they contain multiple drivers, each that handle different frequencies. For example, the tweeter handles the high frequencies in music. The midrange handles the... well... it handles the midranges which is 80% of all the music. Then there are woofers, which handle the lower frequencies, often down to 40hZ! However, you would usually want a subwoofer to give you more powerful bass and handle frequencies under 40hZ. Floor standing speakers are either 2-Way, 3-Way, or 4-Way. Here I will describe each of them:
2-Way - 2-Way speakers consist of a tweeter and a midbass woofer. However, you can get the same layout in a much smaller bookshelf speaker. However, the floor standing speakers look better, and often produce more bass than bookshelf speakers. However, the 2-Way speaker won't be producing the full sound that you would get from a 3-Way speaker. A 2-Way tower will only give you more bass than a 2-Way bookshelf speaker usually.
3-Way - 3-Way speakers are the ideal floor standing speakers. They have a tweeter, midrange, and woofers. They handle frequencies usually from 40hZ all the way up to 20,000kHZ! They have much fuller sound and bass than bookshelf speakers, or 2-Way floor standing speakers. 3-Way speakers are ported. Ports are used for bass flow. Usually, you wouldn't want to place a floor standing speaker near a corner, because you will get boomy bass. If you're looking for good floor stabding speakers that will impress you with rich clean sound, then a 3-Way is the way to go.
4-Way - More isn't always better... I've seen some speakers from Polk, Klipsch, Boston Acoustics, and Paradigm that have built-in subwoofers. Some can reach power of 300Watts! Now, there are a few reasons why I would never buy these speakers. First of all, a brand can make good music/vocal speakers, but not good subwoofers. Another reason is that the bass can interfere with the higher frequencies produced by the speakers. Another is that you shouldn't go cheap on subwoofers, I'd just tuck a nice one into a corner, and forget about it. You get much cleaner sound using seperate speakers. Sure, 4-Way speakers save space, but you pay much more for the subwoofers built into the speakers.
*In conclusion, it is best to go with 3-Way floor standing speakers. They will give you the fullest possible sound with the greatest looks. These 'towers' will surely impress your friends.
-Different Materials-
*The drivers are the most important parts of a speaker. They produce all the the noises. Different brands use different materials. The most common material used is called polyproleine. It has very good sound reproduction. Some other brands use polymers and composite metals. Usually, composites are much more expensive, but they give you much more natural, powerful, and clean sound. Paradigm offers composites in their Monitor series speakers. However, if you're looking for average speakers, you usually would look for polyproleine. JBL offers a material called Polyplass in their speakers, which I must say I'm quite impressed with. The sound that polymers offer is very powerful and clean... Yet inexpensive for most part. Bose uses paper in their speakers, which can either foam or crack easily... Plus paper creates a very annoying pitched sound, which can give you a headache. paper is dirt cheap, but Bose sells their speakers for a lot of money. Overall, the worst materials are paper, and the cleanest sound comes from composite metals, which are the best materials.
-Different Brands-
*There are a lot of different brands that make floor standing speakers. The best ones come from brands like B&W, Mission, Boston Acoustics, Paradigm, Acoustic Research, Sony (Yes, Sony makes excellent speakers now), JBL, M&K, Eggleston Soundworks, Mirage, JMLab, Canton, Cambridge Soundworks, and many others. What you have to do is look at some models that you like, and compare them side-by-side. It is for you to decide what is better, and what is worse. No one else can do that for you. I listed you only a few companies that make excellent speakers.
-The Bad And The Ugly-
*There are also some brands that take poor quality speakers, and sell them for an incredibly high price tag. Most companies gain a reputation by building high quality products. Some others gain them by marketing tactics, and by selling gorgeous looking products to amatures. For example, bad companies are Bose, which is by far the most evil. The other evil company is Bang and Olufsen (B&O), which makes gorgeous speakers, that sound terrible, but they sell them for thousands of dollars. For example, I decided to compare speakers from Bose and B&O to the Sony SS-MF515s which grandma and grandpa have. Bose uses paper drivers in their speakers, while Sony uses polyproleine, along with a metallic dome tweeter. Bose uses obsolete 2" paper tweeters. The Bose speakers costed a few hundred dollars more, but they sounded significantly worse. B&O performed the same. however, I was once able to see the B&O Pentas which retail for an astounding $5,000, however they were devoured by $200 speakers.
-Price Means Nothing-
*If I saw good speakers for $50, I would buy them. There can be speakers for $5,000 like B&O Pentas, and they can sound terrible. It's for you to decide what sounds good, and what sounds bad. In this field, price isn't everything. Don't let low prices scare you. Listen to everything. Remember, money doesn't go on trees, and it's always good to save it.
-Multi-Directional Firing Floor Standing Speakers-
*Most of the speakers that you will see on the market have drivers that fire sound forwards, or towards you at least. there are also other speakers on the market, such as the Bose 901s, that have speakers that fire to the sides and backwards. This allows the sound to reflect around the room. It creates a more spacious, but unrealistic sound. Some people find this sound to be emotional, and absolutely love it. However, I prefer more realistic sound. I focus more on front-firing speakers that have superior imaging. However, it's for you to decide if you like these kinds of speakers, not other people.
-Better Sound... It Comes Cheap With Tweaks-
*There are many high end floor standing speakers that have spikes on the bottom. Spikes keep most of the bass from touching the ground. When you use spikes, you get a better sound response. There are some specialty spikes out there that can cost around $15 for a pack of four. However, you can use cheaper alternatives. Such as using wooden pegs, cork, or even nickels as spikes. Just place them in each of the four corners of the speaker base, and brace yourself for smoother sound. You don't always have to pay a lot to get better sound, you can always do it the cheap way.
-In Conclusion-
*I hope that you learned a lot about floor standing speakers after reading this review. I hope that this review directed you towards making a better choice. If you're looking for main speakers, floor standing ones are the way to go. They offer much fuller and more powerful sound than bookshelf speakers. They also have a better bass response. They are well worth it. Also, most people are more amazed by larger speakers, rather than tiny bookshelf speakers. In conclusion, 3-Way speakers that have composite or polyproleine drivers are the way to go.
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soupcraze
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I enjoy many of life's passions... Music, medicine, people, and life itself.
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