How to Select the Right Speakers

Captain, I don"t have the power! Is power all I need?
There are other characteristics you need to consider when shopping for your next speaker system.

Power rating

When it comes to buying speakers, there is a lot of lingo out there that is confusing. The following is an explanation of the basics and what to look for in a speaker or speaker system.

The first and sometimes only thing people look at is the power or "watts" a speaker can handle. Let me tell you, “bigger is not always better.” There are some larger speaker cabinets and individual speakers that are not as good as some smaller speakers. When it comes to the amount of watts a speaker can handle, there are basically two ways they are rated, "RMS" and "Peak" watts. Simply stated, “RMS” is the average power a speaker can handle without being damaged; “Peak” is the maximum power a speaker can handle without being damaged. To put it another way, a speaker rated at 100w RMS can handle approximately the same amount of power as a speaker rated at 200w peak. In my opinion, peak watts is a poor way to rate a speaker, because they will usually give a distorted sound long before they reach their "maximum" rating. Then to add to the confusion, there are speaker cabinets rated at 400w when the active components in the cabinet can only handle 200 or 300 watts. This is done by using a protection device that absorbs any power over the capabilities of the active components. This can be a good feature for "heavy handed" users, because the protection device should blow before the amplifier or the active components of the speaker does. The disadvantage of these devices is that you never hear the full potential power of your amplifier. This is because anything over the active component rating is being wasted and these devices compress the frequency response or “tone” of the speaker.

Frequency response

The frequency response of a speaker is its ability to accurately reproduce sound. It is measured in cycles per second called Hertz or "Hz". Generally, the human ear can hear sounds in the range of 20Hz (20 cycles per second) for bass and 20kHz (20,000 cycles per second) for treble. So it stands to reason, if you buy a speaker that can reproduce these frequencies then that’s all you need, right? Alas, it is not that simple. The major difference is the speakers ability to reproduce all of the frequencies in that range at any given volume level. This ability is measured in a term called "variance" and is measured in decibels or "db." Remember, “The lower the variance, the better.” So a speaker with a variance of +/- 3db is better than a speaker with a variance of +/- 5db.

Summary

When comparing speakers, if you use watts, frequency response, and variable, you can eliminate some of the poorly constructed options that are out there. It really comes down to this, everyone hears things differently. What sounds good to you may not sound good to your friends and family. This is due to the fact that our listening experience has to do what we "feel" as well as what we hear.

So, other than making sure you are not connecting 50w RMS speakers to a 100w RMS amplifier, you really need to listen to the speakers and select the ones that sound best to you. If there are any other questions regarding this subject please post them to the forum and I will respond as quickly as possible.