There are loudspeakers and then there are the best audiophile loudspeakers and knowing how to pick between them can be very tricky. That’s why we are here to help you make the right decision without any fuss or consternation.
Key Factors Before Buying Audiophile Loudspeakers
- How is your room? Have you done room treatments for the first order reflections? Have you dealt with absorption? Have you used products to trap standing bass waves? Fixing these issues can make $2,000 speakers sound like $20,000 speakers. We aren’t kidding.
- Will us use an audiophile grade subwoofer? Too many audiophiles are caught up getting all of their bass from gigantic audiophile speakers when a a subwoofer is the way to get the lowest bass for the lowest cost.
- Don’t ignore the idea of using audiophile grade bookshelf speakers. Often the cost of buying top-level but smaller bookshelf speakers is a tiny fraction of the cost of full-sized speakers. Pairing these high end mid-range drivers and tweeters with a pair of modest subwoofers can be simply fantastic and a killer value.
- Do you have enough power in your audiophile amp? Some speakers are harder to drive than others. This is called sensitivity and measured in dB. Speakers under 90 dB are thought of as harder to drive than those above 90 dB. At 93 dB (and higher) these speakers need a lot less power to make sound that is loud. Easier to drive speakers can allow you to spend more money on lower-power amplifiers thus effecting your overall audiophile budget.
- Colors and finishes matter. Today’s speakers often come in all sorts of colors or finishes. Black is still beautiful but white is very popular on the coasts of the United States as well as much of Europe. Wood finishes tend to be popular in Canada and in the Midwestern U.S. Some audiophile speaker companies have paint booths as if they are an automotive body shop thus allowing them to paint your speakers in any car or household paint color. Their computer can match and create and possible color on the visual spectrum. With drying booths, custom paint finishes
6. Form factor is another key factor. Audiophile speakers don’t need to be big and ugly anymore. Today’s designs can be thin and sleek while still outputting large volumes of sound. Powered subwoofers, often mounted in the side of speakers, make for a powerful sonic statement. Modern speaker cabinet design also help get more speaker sound from less physical speaker.
We hope these tips help you make a very informed audiophile speaker buying decision.