What About Loudspeaker Choice?

by James Leahy

Because proper Hi-Fi music reproduction can only be achieved by using full range loudspeakers this limits the compactness of them. For the best sound a larger floor standing loudspeaker is preferable over a bookshelf model and should ideally normally be placed at least 1 meter from the rear and side walls.   Loudspeakers that are most suitable for Hi-Fi can not as easily be hidden and concealed as can be the case with some stealth home theater installations we have done.

For loudspeaker set-up for Hi-Fi to be successful some if not most myths commonly held will have to be discarded. To illustrate this point I will tell you about a customer I had once who walked into my listening room and before even sitting down to listen to my system told me I was crazy to place my loudspeakers about 1.5 meters out from my back wall. When I asked why he looked at me blankly and told me, "Because nobody does it like that". It didn't matter to him that they sounded the best in that location as I have spent countless hours experimenting with placement but the look of the room did not appeal to his tastes.

Once again it all comes down to what and how much of a compromise you are willing to live with on a day-to-day basis with respect to the space considerations a decent sized loudspeaker will occupy. Loudspeakers tell you where they need to be placed to get the best possible sound. You don't tell them, they tell you. With no other Hi-Fi component is ascetics as important in the purchasing decision as they are with loudspeakers for the majority of my customers. Never mind that one pair might sound infinitely better if they do not fit the buyers image checklist they are quickly forgotten. Decide now how important size and looks are to you from the start, it will make my job much easier.

While it is true that a loudspeaker which measures poorly will nearly always sound poorly, it is equally true that that loudspeakers which measure exceedingly well sometimes sound just as lousy, in a purely subjective listening test, as ones that are objectively poor. This is why, of all components, the loudspeaker is still the one that must be selected mainly on the basis of how it sounds and to hell with the measurements.