Choosing a Speaker for the small room
Feb 02 '01 (Updated Feb 19 '01)
The Bottom Line The best way to find a good speaker is to trust your own ears, use your own music and test each and every loudspeaker.
Bookshelf speakers can also be known as standmounters (the reason being that you stand them on stands too), and the loudspeaker has been around for many years and today’s range are the best you'll find and especially with the budget area.
These bookshelve speakers designed to be placed near a wall or on a stand, take up the budget area. So what should you look for when searching for the best standmounter?
Size The size of bookshelve speakers is rarely any higher than 45cm and less than 25c wide, and an average of 30cm in depth, some more smaller speakers will fit right up against a rear wall while the larger types will be better of out in the open on a stand.
Design The design of a loudspeaker is crucial to what sound it make. Resonance is one part which affects every aspect of sound, it is the vibrations of the cabinet which the speaker driver is in, and if the cabinet is weak it with vibrate and cause minor sound defections, so build quality is of highest importance. Next would be the type of design, most small speakers have a port to let out the deep low sounds, most are at the rear and are best suited away from a wall and on a stand, while ones with a front port are designed for a shelf or to be near a wall. The weight goes with the build, if its heavy then you have good build, one area to check is the finish of a cabinet, most have a real wood veneer, which has some disadvantages with cheap speakers as sometimes it comes off. Check the speaker in store if it has 1) good looks and 2) build quality. A way of testing build is to knock on a side, if it sounds hollow and high pitched, it is weakly braced, if a hard knocky sound comes, then it may have internal bracing to strengthen the cabinet.
Components The components of these type of speakers are quite important, while some have a simple capacitor which is a cost effective way, and some have a full circuit board inside to give the best sound. Basically no one can see the inside so forget that, next though is the drivers. The drivers are the parts made to create the sound, usually compromising of a woofer and tweeter. A woofer makes most of the low-end sound and some middle frequencies of sound, while the tweeter handles only the high-pitched sound. An average size for a woofer on a bookshelf is 12cm or even a low 10cm, an average of 13cm is a good choice, tweeters are even smaller, they range from different types, most common though is domed tweeters, they have an average size of 25mm diameter. Look for soft dome tweeters and either, treated paper or Kevlar woofers, as these are the best sorts for small speakers.
Connection Here look for some good binding posts, these offer better connecting and as a result better sound, though you’ll need to buy some good cables too, and try to avoid spring clips, as these have less contact with wire than the binding posts. Also you may wish to consider biwireable speaker terminals. The biwiring is where the woofer and tweeter are connected to two separate connections, you’ll need an amplifier with two sets of speaker outputs to connect each two drivers up, although you can still use one set of speaker outputs from the amp.
Setting Up
You should really invest in some strong speaker stands, unless you bought a floor standing speaker, these stands will lift the drivers up to normal ear level when siting down. The stands will bring out more detail in sound from the speakers, experiment with positions so you get the best. Its not a bad idea to buy a shelfing unit for the rest of you kit, this will improve the sound too, as the vibration will be eliminated from the sensetive components.
If you decide to bi wire your speakers you will need two runs of speaker cable from the amplifier to each speaker, and again will improve the sound, you will need a double speaker output on the amp.
What to look for
If you want quality go for brand names, such as Tannoy, Kef, Mission, and Wharfedale. While Kef, Mission and Tannoy, are the best out there as well as Heybrook, and they each have there own style: Mission speakers have the woofer over the tweeter and use a plastic baffle. Tannoy employs a treated paper woofer and mild yellow veneer on their mX series. Kefs have a leather effect on the baffle and use large cabinets. And the Heybrook has a strangely small 10cm woofer. The best at the time, budget speakers are; Kef Cresta 1 & 2, Heybrook HB1 2000 Series, Mission; 700, 701 & M71, 70 series., Tannoy mX 1, mX2, and mX3 series.
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