Hi all,
Outside of ingrained knowledge from headphones and the associated signal chains, i know basically nothing about real speakers and that the room has big impact.
Is there a good resource, youtube channel, anything to learn more about this side of things?
I dream of having a 2.0 or 2.1 channel set up that centers around music, and can be used for some nice tv and movie time but i have no idea what to look at or research.
Just decent speaker placement and basic room treatment (treat the points of first reflection) will get you a long way.
A lot of the theory isn’t really useful, knowing that a square room is the worst possible shape doesn’t really help if your room is square.
Your question is very general and I could write a book. Luckily, those already exist lol.
But, if you give me specific questions I can answer them.
New Record Day on youtube seems to have decent content. I can’t swear to his knowledge because I’m also not a speaker first kind of guy, but I’ve watched a bunch of his videos that spill over into this headphone hobby and his approach works for me. Also, pretty regular content is a plus
Q: Where do I start?
Zeos, I guess. He’s got a good finger on speakers.
Powered speakers are easy to get into with the variety on the market. Bigger means more bass and louder.
Passive speakers with an amp start down a hole. What size of room? What kind of music? Ect.
To be less vague though. Looking at what makes each speaker different. Doesnt need to be in depth but something where i can grab it and do my research. What speakers or types are good for say only sitting in from of them dead flat, or what is more room filling and not ao directional. I assume driver tech mimics headphones but if it doesnt let me know
I did things a bit backwards, I came to headphones from speakers and i’ll say they’re more similar than different.
John Darko, Andrew Robinson, and ofc Z are good names if you’re looking for content creators in the speaker space. PS Audio also has some good videos on YT. One thing about speakers is that it seems WAY easier to hear a set before you buy, not sure why, but you can seemingly find way more variety of speakers in showrooms or dealers than you can headphones. So i recommend finding a set up in a showroom you’d like to hear. Even some Best Buy’s will have “Magnolia” sections that run huge McIntosh setups on demo…
The basic concepts, and even some “old adages” are the same though; speakers make the biggest difference in sound more so than source components, but pairing with the right amps and dacs w/ speakers is a thing to be experimented with and can change sound noticeably, etc.
A lot of audio characteristics you’re talking about comes down to the tweeter. Woofers do do something to the sound, but not much in the majority of speakers.
If you watch Z, he’ll explain how horns disperse sound or not. Some tweeters can be sharp, and that’s more down to the crossover and efficiency balance between the tweeter and woofers.
But for the most part, it’s like headphones. You choose a price, style of music, and look through selections. Speakers do a bit more as room size and power efficiency starts to matter. Reviewers will state if the speakers are directional or dispersive, how the bass resonates against walls, ect…
Unless you’re planning on building speakers (which is very worthwhile, btw), I don’t believe you need to study up on them that much.
That’s an excellent point, and a very speaker specific thing; how the sound is dispersed… Headphones dont really have “off center/axis” or a “sweet spot”. In speaker world, the actual room you’re in is part of the system, and can’t be ignored as a component of the end result. How far are the speakers from the wall, do you have hard wood, or carpet, or concrete floors, is the room full of furniture, are the walls hollow, is the room very tall, are there a lot of glass/window surfaces… its all part of the sound
I haven’t had experience with tons of speakers but something I noticed is that studio monitors tend to improve a ton with toe in. So if you want something that is facing dead forward without toe in a non studio speaker might be best. However for speakers you just gotta get one and then mess with the placement depending on your room since in one way or another they will all e fairly room dependant. Depending on the size for example they can be farther from each other without losing bass/bass impact. My iloud micro monitord have crazy bass slam at shoulder width but even slightly wider than that they completely lose it
Oh yeah, it gets complicated. And it’s not really something that can be fully understood. Subwoofers, desktop speakers, and other start in different realms.
I’m for DIY speakers, and once you get deep in that pit, you start to understand why many speakers are just very similar. Most focus on doing a good overall job; not the best at one thing. Klipsch Heritage and Ohm are WEIRD because they’re so not normal, and really only appeal to specific folks.
The triangle method. The distance of the listening position should be equal to the distance between the left and right speaker.
Unless its on a desk than just toe in or toe out.
Is toe in and toe out mean to angle it towards yourself?
Pretty much but it can be measured as well.
Some info.
Some speakers might be too sharp or bright on directly listened by the tweeter and bit more angled inward, may eaz the sharpness. It was some DIY speaker i listened and it did just that in a room.
Some manufactures may recommend them being bit outwards, away from ears to sound what that particular speaker should sound like.
For “non- directional” you want to stay away from line arrays and horns. Other than that it depends on the individual speaker’s design considerations. You really need to listen to them.
What is it that you’re looking for in a set of speakers? What are your priorities?
This is about as wrong as can be. Woofers produce the majority of the vocal range (along with bass). Unless you don’t care about what voices sound like, you better get the woofer right.
The best by far at explaining how a particular speakers sounds and how to get the best out of it is Zero Fidelity (YT).
Every time I get a big box shipped, my wife asks me if I got a new woofer.
As someone on the forum @Nick_Mimi once told me, no one speaker does it all. That’s pretty much everything you need to keep in mind as you begin your quest.
I hate to generalize but there are some good generalization. For example, smaller speakers tend to image better. Speakers with bigger drivers tend to be more efficient. DIY speakers can be an excellent value. The same synergistic secret sauce that applies to headphone chains, applies to speaker chains. Good subwoofers (well set up) will help 99% of all the speakers out there.