On this page, you will find information all to do with speakers, subwoofers and their specifications.

Choosing the right speaker for you

Speakers play the biggest role in the sound you will hear from your system. This makes speaker selection the most important of all the components in the sound system. But many people find speaker selection very confusing, time consuming and demeaning for a first time serious buyer. Reading the following information will help you greatly in your speaker selection process. Because everybody has different tastes in music and sound. Therefore,  not every speaker is right for you. You should choose the type of speaker which suites or compliments the type of sound you like.

When you first decide you want to purchase a new pair of speakers, first decide on your budget - how much do you want to spend on your speakers? Remember, when purchasing speakers, you usually get what you pay for, and saving a little money on the speakers to buy a better CD player probably will not be as good as getting the cheaper CD player and better speakers. You can always upgrade your CD player easily in the future.

After you have decided on a budget, make a list of store locations and what brands they sell. There are litteraly hundreds of brands of speakers available on the market. Half of the brands you may never hear of because the companies are "high end" and do not advertise -- how many people can afford to spend 15 to 20 thousand for a pair of speakers.

I would recommend staying away from stores such as Radio Shack, and large department and consumer electronics stores, becuase they usually do not carry good quality audio equipment, they do not have adequate auditioning rooms, the sales people tend to pressure the consumer a lot and they do not provide very good service. Try to visit more stereo specialists stores - they provide better equipment, service, and do not pressure you as much. With a lot of high end stores, they will let you take the equipment home for a trial period to see if you like how the equipment performs in your listening environment.

Before auditioning, check out a few of these  definitions.

Auditioning Speakers

Take your list of the different brands and models in your price range, and go around to all the different stores and audition the speakers. Try not to audition too many at a time, it can be confusing trying to remember which ones you liked best. If you already have an amplifier at home which you will use with the speakers, make sure that the impedance of the speakers is not too low for the amplifier to handle.

When auditioning the speakers, bring in some musical / home theater material that you know will give the speakers a good workout in the bass, midrange and treble. Bring in some classical or jazz  and something with a lot of female vocals. Before auditioning, listen to all of the speakers at relatively the same sound level. When you are listening to the speakers, there are certain things to listen for --->  Listening to Speakers.

Take as long as you need while auditioning, good speaker stores should not pressure you. When you have narrowed it down to a few models, ask to see if you can take them home to audition them. They may sound different in your listening environment. When you finally have selected a pair you really like (you have to really like your speakers), bargain on the price (audio equipment is priced so you will bargain).

Make sure that you get to audition them in your home before you buy because they may sound a lot different and you may not like them anymore.

Positioning your Speakers

In my opinion, the room in which you place your speakers is almost - if not as important as the speakers themselves! Rooms wich are similar in length and depth and height are not preffered as they can aggrivate standing wave problems. The speakers should be placed facing the length of the room. They should be symetrical with the room and there should not be any objects in front of them. If your room has a lot of soft materials (carpeted floors, sofas, upholstered chairs) it will absorb some of the sound energy - mostly in the higher frequencies. If the room has hard wood floors and wooden or hard furniture, the sound will reflect a lot.

If you still have some minor problems, see the  Room Troubleshooting.

After your speakers are positioned the way you like them, you should no longer have to listen the same way you did while auditioning... just enjoy the music.