In the market for a new set of loud speakers for your home theatre system but don't know where to begin?
Whatever your needs, chances are there will be a loud speaker to suit. With such a huge range of shapes, sizes and qualities to choose from it's little wonder that speaker shopping can be daunting to the uninitiated.
To help separate the good from the bad we asked three audio experts to provide their tips on how to pick perfect speakers. Here's what Dale Seeley, (Managing Director of Surround Sounds, WA), Len Wallis (Director of Len Wallis Audio, NSW) and Daniel King (Theatre Manager, Intelligent Homes, WA) had to say.
Your home theatre will only sound as good as your speakers. The speakers are the last stop for sound on the way to your ears, so if the speakers are poor quality you will get poor quality sound no matter how good your DVD and amplifier.
To ensure you are buying a quality product, find a brand that has a heritage in making loud speakers. Most brands will have a suite of products that go from the inexpensive to the very expensive, so the trick is to find a reputable brand and not scrimp on price.
As a rough guide, when putting together a home theatre system, you should spend around 50% of your budget on the electronics part of the system. Of this amount, in excess of half should be spent on the speakers.
Make sure all your speakers are well-matched to each other.
Ideally you should have the exact same speakers throughout your home entertainment system. By mixing and matching your speakers, you won't get a consistency of sound across the room.
Think of watching an on-screen image of a horse galloping from one side of the screen to the other. Sound tracks are produced to provide consistent sound, so the horse does not change its sound character as it gallops across the screen. If however you have a different centre-channel speaker, the horse will sound different as it moves across the centre part of the screen.
The drawback to the 'consistency counts' rule is that it is not always easy to match speakers. For example, you might not have a big enough room to fit more than one full-size surround speaker, or too many of the same sized speaker may not match your decor. In these situations you should always try to get your speakers from the same manufacturer's line or from the same manufacturer - as each speaker tends to have a signature sound.
As your centre channel is the most important speaker, try to always match your other speakers to this one.
If you decide to use in-ceiling speakers for your rear speakers, make sure you choose top quality to give you the best sound to match the front speakers.
The centre channel is the most important speaker in the system as it produces as much as 80% of what is happening in the sound track at any particular time. All of the on-screen dialogue comes through this speaker, so scrimp on it and you will be constantly turning up the volume to hear what is said. You want crisp clear dialogue emitting from the lips of the person on the screen, so ensure your centre channel is of the same quality and power rating as your other speakers.
Power in a speaker isn't that important and the power specifications advertised with speakers can be misleading.
Take the manufacturer's specifications about power with a grain of salt because they are not always accurate. A lot of manufacturers give you a wattage-per-channel power rating but when you look at the fine print you find out that to get this power you would need to have all other speaker channels turned off at the time, which of course doesn't make for a good home entertainment experience!
The sensitivity of a loud speaker - how it plays at low power - is considerably more important than its power capacity.
Sensitivity doesn't have an impact on the performance but it is a useful guide to what amplifier you need in order to get adequate sound pressure level. Usually the higher the sensitivity of the loudspeaker, the less amplification you need to drive it. An increase in 3 decibels of sensitivity is equal to doubling the power.
Some speakers have three drives and others have two, but don't think that the one with more drives is necessarily better.
Three drives allow the speaker to split up the frequency response, so the drivers can handle different parts of the frequency: a woofer for bass, a tweeter for high sounds and a midrange driver for sounds in the middle.
The downside with this set up is that a 'cross-over network' is required to divide the sound up into these frequencies - the quality of which can vary considerable from speaker to speaker. You may find a speaker with three drives that has utilised top-quality electronics in its cross over network, or you may find that a speaker with three drives that uses a poor quality cross over.
The bottom line is if the speaker is not a top of the range model, it may be safer to stick to two drives.
Loudspeakers are all about moving air, so the bigger their size the greater their capacity to move air. The downside is that large freestanding speakers can take up a lot of space, which is why the smaller boxes or ceiling speakers often get preference for blending into the decor.
The bottom line is that to get an aesthetic looking speaker you will compromise a little on the performance. It's a matter of getting that balance between what can work visually without noticeably affecting sound quality. A good alternative is a low level buffet cabinet that can hide the speakers while still providing the opportunity for good sound.
In-ceiling speakers work well in a family room environment or a glass-panelled room where there is no room for large free-standing speakers.
These thin units are placed in a wall or ceiling with their grilles flush-mounted to the surface. Because of their small size, in-ceiling speakers are often compromised when it comes to producing high-quality audio. Directionality of the sound can be another issue as you won't be able to position your speaker in the centre of the screen to get the lip-moving / voice sync. Seek an in-ceiling speaker that has a moveable or pivoting tweeter, which allows the sound to be directed to a particular area of the room.
There is a saying that a poor quality sound system in a very good room will sound better than a very good system in a poor quality room.
Room acoustics are an important part of how speakers perform. Depending on whether it is a very lively room or a dead room, speakers will have a pre-disposition to being one way or the other.
You need to choose a speaker based on the environment it is going into - the size, shape and decor of the room. This will vary quite dramatically in an open family room dynamic to a dedicated home theatre.
If you are building a new home with a home theatre you should definitely take into account the acoustics. If you can get in early enough at the architectural stage you can ensure the room's dimensions and shape are chosen to maximise sound quality.
Placement is important. You might find that putting a speaker in one area makes it boom, while moving it slightly either side of this position will make the boom disappear (the boom will still be somewhere in the room but not where you are sitting listening to the music).
Placement of the centre-channel speaker is particularly important. It can be quite disconcerting to watch a film and see the character's lips moving out of synch with the voice. You want the voice coming from exactly where the lips and mouth are moving so you must place your centre-channel speaker as its name suggests - in the centre!
Subwoofers produce the low-bass sounds you hear in music and movie soundtracks and are responsible for making you 'feel' the sound. It typically comes in square boxy cabinet that can be placed behind a piece of furniture or in a large basket, provided it is not too far away from the listening area.
Because they make their low sounds by moving air, the bigger the woofer, the more air it can move. If the room that houses your entertainment system is of poor sound quality - such as that it has lots of glass and floor tiles - you can use a good quality sub woofer to beef up the sound.
When building a house, think in advance where you want to place your home entertainment system so the cables can be positioned in the right spot right at the start of the project. It will save time, money and many headaches is this is all sorted out from the word go.
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Date: 17/12/2008 | Learn More
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