In your quest to build a great two-channel audio system, you may already own a pair of speakers, or perhaps you’re saving up to buy the perfect set. That’s a good starting point. For this installment, however, I’m going to assume you’re starting from scratch and will provide guidance with that in mind. Even if you have some audio equipment already, I strongly suggest that you at least skim the following paragraphs, to make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to the importance of the loudspeaker.
One of the all-time great rip-snortin’, "fist-poundin’, hair- pullin’, teeth-gnashin’ debates amongst audiophiles is whether the beginning or the end of the audio chain is the most important. This may sound somewhat academic – even trivial – but I assure you it’s a big deal: the ramifications will not only affect your system’s performance but will also have a major impact on how you budget for each component.
PS Audio Aspen FR20 loudspeakers.
The debate comes down to a chicken-or-the-egg problem that goes something like this. The source-first crowd reasons that the source of the music, whether vinyl or digital, is the single most important element in the system, because if you can’t get the information off the disc in the first place, the rest of the chain doesn’t much matter. The speaker-first crowd agrees about the importance of a quality music source, but argues that even if perfect information is retrieved from the disc, the quality of that information doesn’t matter if the loudspeakers can’t faithfully reproduce it. If you’re on a budget, you’ll need to choose where to place the greatest percentage of your investment: in the source, the middle of the amplification chain, or the loudspeakers.
For me, the answer’s clear: loudspeakers should take priority in my view, and here’s why. Of all the components in a two-channel audio chain, including turntables, CD players, amplifiers, preamplifiers, DACs, wires, and speakers, the single most flawed component is the loudspeaker – and not by a little. Where an amplifier, CD player, or record-playing component may measure relatively flat frequency response (how evenly the volume of individual tones is reproduced), the flaws in even the world’s most expensive speakers are worse by orders of magnitude. In fact, we can measure speaker quality and interaction easily, both in technical and audible terms. Let me give you an example.
If we compare the sound of two CD players playing the same musical track, there will be differences we can hear on a highly resolving system. Perhaps the highs are little muffled, or there’s somewhat less bass, or the impact of a drum whack isn’t felt quite as much, audible differences that often take a bit of training and guidance to perceive. Compare that with two different loudspeakers. If we place one manufacturer’s speakers in the room and listen to a track at a given volume, then replace those speakers with a pair built by another manufacturer, the music each pair delivers will sound so different that the listener will wonder what the hell just happened.
When we use audio measurement equipment to test the audio outputs of products, source and amplification gear differences are typically measured in tenths of a dB (a dB is a decibel – a standard measurement of loudness that is generally thought to require several increments before a change can be detected). Loudspeakers, even the best in existence, are applauded if their dB deviation is close to 3dB (a 30-times difference).
While this may sound highly technical, at this juncture in our adventure the implications are quite simple. Because loudspeakers sound and perform so differently in every room, they must be chosen to match their environment as well as our tastes. Where one type or even brand of speaker might be great in a medium-sized room for mostly rock and progressive music, it may not make a jazz or classical aficionado happy. Or perhaps the best choice for your application might be a panel speaker, but your better half took one look and announced, “Over my dead body is that thing going in our home.” Thus, when you combine the technical challenges of loudspeakers with their imposing size and room-dominating features, it might help to understand why I firmly believe they are the single most important component in the stereo chain.
Long story short, the proper choice of loudspeaker is far more important than the source. Speakers have more impact on the eventual audio outcome of your system than all the other components in the chain combined.
When it comes to budgeting for your system, the relative expenses for each element change based on the category of system you want. If you’re assembling a casual system, expect to spend between 50 and 70 percent of your budget on loudspeakers. For a serious system, that ratio drops back to 50 percent for loudspeakers, and if you’re going completely whacked-out, speakers take their rightful place in the chain at between 30 to 40 percent of the budget. The proportions even out for a simple reason: as the system gets better, it can better resolve small differences in every aspect of the chain. Thus, once we cross a quality threshold with loudspeakers, they tend to reveal more and more flaws in the preceding electronics chain, making it incumbent to spend more on the quality of electronics until all aspects are evened out.
In most cases, you’re going to spend a minimum of half your total expenditure on the very finest loudspeakers you’re able to put into your home. With a magical pair of high- performance speakers, you can make music in your home something few have had the pleasure of hearing.
There is a greater variety of loudspeakers than of any other components in the chain. Where the choices in electronics might be as simple as transistors versus tubes, and the choices of phono cartridges maybe only between moving magnets and moving coils, speaker types take us down a wild and wacky path which can often numb the mind, palpitate the heart, and enrage the hemorrhoids. There are box speak‐ ers, planars, plasmas, ribbons, electrostats, open baffles, closed baffles, panels, horns, sealed, ported, passive radiators, line sources, point sources, one-ways, two-ways, three-ways, four-ways, bipolars, dipolars, transmission lines, actives, passives, in-walls, on-walls, DSPs – not to mention all the hybrids! What’s a poor audiophile to do
Fret not! I am here to help sort out these vexing questions. Together, we’re going to take a sensible approach to choosing your loudspeaker, and the first question we’re going to answer is: what are you hoping for?
When I daydream about projects, problems, or new ideas, I often start with the magic wand question: if I had a magic wand, what would I wish for? Forget any restrictions or practical issues. For me, at least, eliminating the nagging problems of reality helps clear my mind of clutter and gets me down to the nitty gritty of what I really want. Perhaps what I want is a small, powerful, and impressive living room setup. That’s fine. But maybe what I really want (and might be afraid to even dream about) is a big, ass-kicking, state-of-the- art, high-end audio system that gets me excited just thinking about it. Whatever you’re looking for, just daydream a bit and figure out what you want from the system. From there, we can see how close to possible we can get you.
Hopefully, your dream system has fallen into one of the three categories I’ve previously mentioned in our previous installment, “Budgets, and Systems from Small to Outrageous” in Issue 232. Yeah? Good, just keep that in mind as we move on to looking at the various types of speaker possibilities.
Though there are hundreds of speaker design ideas, I’m going to break them down into a couple of broad groups: box speakers and panel speakers. Once you clear away all the marketing cruft and industrial design choices – and ignore the home theater and custom installation market – those two are the most relevant for building a stereo system.
We’ll be covering that in the next issue.
Header image: PS Audio Aspen FR5 loudspeakers.
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