BuildingConfidences.com

Having spent a good deal of time selling consumer electronics, one of the most disturbing things I witnessed on a daily basis was people buying speakers.

Yes, I am serious. I found it disturbing.

Speakers are without a doubt the most important aspect of any home theatre system, and yet invariably they are the component paid the least attention by consumers. I can’t even count the number of times I witnessed someone spend, literally, hours choosing a TV and then pair it up with the cheapest HTIB (home theatre in a box) they could find. Or worse, they would shell out thousands for junk speakers made by a certain marketing company that rhymes with rose.

I can’t stress this enough, speakers should be the one component you focus on when you purchase a home entertainment system. They are what will really make the difference between a system that replicates or exceeds the movie theatre experience. These days almost everyone has a big screen TV, but most people still haven’t discovered what a good audio system will do for them.

With that in mind, here are a few things you should NOT do when shopping for speakers:

Do not buy speakers based on size. I know this is easier said than done for a lot of people, especially since the small speakers available today don’t exactly sound terrible. But that’s only until you compare them directly to proper, full-sized speakers. Upon doing so, small speakers weaknesses become very evident.

Do not buy speakers from a big name company that spend a lot of money on advertising.

Do not buy your surround speakers in stages if you can help it, or mix brands. Every speaker has a unique “voice” and mixing and matching will result in changes in sound quality and sound travels between speakers. Speakers are constantly being improved and tweaked by their makers, and older models get discontinued, If you don’t buy all of your speakers at once, you may find it becomes impossible to acquire a complete set.

Do not cheap out on your subwoofer.

Do not listen to anything the guy at the store says. Quite frankly he is more that likely a clueless idiot. If you’re not sure, show him this article.

Do not get sucked into buying a 7.1 or even 8.1 setup. Unless you have an obscenely massive room, all those extra speaker will be completely pointless, and either way, most movies continue to be mixed for 5.1.

Don’t buy an extended warranty, Any quality speaker will come with at least a five year warranty because, for the most part, speakers don’t break unless you do something stupid to them, and no warranty covers owner stupidity anyway.

The DOs:

Do bring your own music to the store to test out different speakers.
Do dicker like crazy. The markup on speakers is nuts.

Comments are closed.