How to be a Wise Audio Consumer

Reading this file should give you some useful tips on purchasing for maximum value and long-term pleasure. Over the years I've noticed that some folks know how to "buy right" and end up happy, while others are always making the wrong purchasing decision. Since our goal at ACI is to have as many very satisfied customers as possible I offer the following information:

I first authored this FAQ file in 1995 for upload to CompuServe's Home Audio forum. It was the second most popular file for down-load on that site, (# 1 is my Subwoofer Primer file!). I have made a few updates and revisions to this version.

Regards, Mike Dzurko

Commonly Asked Questions:

• How do I choose the speakers best suited to my purposes?
• Can the same speakers be used for both home theater and music?
• Should I consider large speakers or a satellite-subwoofer system?

How do I choose the speakers best suited to my purposes?

- Become an expert; Read everything you can, but take it all with a few pounds of salt. Some writers really know their stuff, some don't know anybody's stuff. Regardless, all writers have their own biases and personal tastes. If you decide to base your buy on someone else's opinion, you'd better know how their tastes compare to yours. Just because Mr. Audiowriter doesn't like a certain product doesn't mean you might not just love it to death. He may love the "etched, extended and detailed highs" that to you are like LASERS IN YOUR EAR.

- Collect opinions from friends and on the forums. But remember, these are only opinions. These individuals' impressions of a company's level of service and quality of their products can be very helpful. But make sure their impressions of sound somehow correlate with your own. I've noticed that in many "net" forums the dominant opinions correlate unusually strongly with the advertising punch and budget of the manufacturers!

- Determine YOUR needs; Everyone else might be talking about crushing stones with Tyrano's feet as the ultimate but you might care a little more about the systems ability to do convincing string bass and other real music. "They" might not care that it's a very ugly plastic box that sounds good but you might want something that also looks good. The point is, decide what is important to YOU. After all, YOU'RE going to pay for it and YOU'RE going to live with it.

- Buy from someone you like and trust.  Are they honest? Do they take the time to get to know your needs and explain what they feel will work best for you? Or, do they quickly try to sell you what they'll make the most on? If you're shopping locally, stop in a few times with some well chosen questions and see how you're treated. If you're shopping mail-order, invest in a few phone calls, ask the questions. (BTW don't rule out dealing with a company just because they don't have a toll-free 800 number. That toll-free number raises product cost more than you might think. You'll certainly spend a few dollars on transportation expenses to visit a dealer so a few dollars on the phone to someone who has the product and service you want could be a good investment.) Someone who's based their business on selling value and satisfying customers can save you thousands; someone who's just selling can cost you thousands.

- You absolutely, positively, must, in any and all circumstances make your final decision based on a home trial unless you are extremely familiar with the gear: "It is highly recommended by all the audio writers in the world and Freddie Fingers says he has an iron clad guarantee that I'll like it or he'll have me floating on a concrete pillow on the East River," doesn't quite cut it. I just can't believe you'd make a commitment to any major piece of gear without being able to try it in your home sans the salesman telling you what you are (or their pocket book says you should be) hearing. If you gain  n o t h i n g else from this article...MAKE SURE YOU TRY IT AT HOME!

- Don't buy from somebody who's better at selling vacuum cleaners or freezers. We all need to be cleaned up now and then and many of us need to be chilled. . but. . if you are serious enough to be looking around on the INTERNET, you must care about the quality of your potential purchase. Apologies to the rare appliance "consultant" who also cares about music. Consider the SOURCE.

- Buy something that has the look and feel of quality. This is certainly a matter of individual opinion but who really likes cheap plastic enclosures and fake wood vinyl-wrapped boxes? Sure "the sound is what's important" but there's no reason it can't come from a quality enclosure that will compliment your room and give you pride of ownership for many years.

- Related to the above, consider if the product will last. Many audio components will just not hold up well. For instance, that vinyl wrapped "cardboard" speaker box may look quite bad in a few short years. The foam surrounds used on many woofers will rot in about 8-15 years depending on climate. The thing is, you don't necessarily have to pay much more for a little quality, you just have to look for it.

- Consider the warranty. For example; very few manufacturers give more than two or three years on powered subs . . . ask yourself why . . .  and ask yourself how much a replacement amp might set you back in three or four years!

----Summing it up, find out as much as you can from as many sources as you can but make sure you determine your own course and TRY IT AT HOME!

Can the same speakers be used for both home theater and music?

-This one is real easy: -IF you've got a pile of money and one room for audio and one room for home theater: BUY TWO SYSTEMS. Go head and do a dedicated home theater in one room and a serious audio system in the other room. -IF you need ONE SYSTEM TO DO IT ALL: music and home-theater; purchase speakers that do a good job with the music you love in regular two-channel stereo. The speakers should have adequate dynamic range to handle the special effects of film sound. If you like to play your videos very loud or have a large room, you're going to need speakers that can put out. Consider using a subwoofer(s). Using subwoofers (usually powered) can help a lot without ruining musical sound. The center channel is very important in movie sound and  5-channel audio. Don't skimp here. You only need magnetically shielded speakers if using CRT T.V.,   Here's an example of how marketing has clearly won over engineering. The common center-channel woofer-tweeter-woofer (O-o-O)Laying on the side is just plain wrong. This horizontal layout directs too much sound at the floor and ceiling and gives ragged response to listeners not sitting right in front of the speaker. Manufacturers (like Aerial, NHT and ACI) make center channel speakers with the correct vertical orientation and all THX speakers are designed for vertical orientation. You have many choices when picking surround speakers. Dipoles and bipoles work well with Dolby tm. encoded material. Conventional speakers can "disappear" almost as well, particularly if you experiment by reflecting them off the ceiling, walls etc. instead of aiming them directly at the listening position. With five-channel music, rear speakers that closely match the front speakers are preferred. 

Should I consider larger speakers or a satellite-subwoofer system?

What about satellite-subwoofer systems? (sat-subs)"After listening to the ad on the noon radio news, I bought the Rose DD77 satellite-subwoofer (Sat-Sub) system and I can't believe the full sound coming from the cigarette carton satellites and hidden shoebox sub." or "Sat-Sub systems are not high-end, the sats and subs never get a seamless match." As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between these frequently voiced opinions. Back when Fred Flintstone ruled, large speakers were "it". If they weren't at least the size of a refrigerator, your manliness was questioned. (No offense to the ladies.) Of course refrigerators did tend to get in the way. The need and desire for teeny, tiny speakers was born. When manufacturers came out with mini speakers (satellites, fondly called sats), we couldn't believe "how much bass they had". How could that be? It all boils down to two well-known psycho-acoustic phenomena;

1) If you only hear the overtones and not the fundamental of a familiar sound, your ear-brain will "fill-in" the fundamental. When the bass player does low "G" (about 50Hz) those tiny speakers won't play it but 100Hz is the first harmonic of 50Hz and because those tiny speakers make some noise at 100Hz your ear will "hear" the low "G" sound!

2) Humans (non-audiophiles anyway) will notice peaks or emphasis in sound frequencies much quicker than they'll notice "missing frequencies" or holes in the response, particularly in certain frequency ranges.

Armed with this info, some very sharp guys decided to make a few billion dollars. The trick was to take tiny midrange-tweeters (often remarkably similar to a table radio speakers!), put them in a tiny cabinet usually made of plastic or cardboard and hook them up to subs with a 5"- 8" woofer(s). The tiny sats in these systems could not reach low enough in frequency to match with the "subs", the subs are too tiny to actually go very low in frequency so they are usually designed to have strong output between say 60 and 125Hz and not much above or below. Because the "hole" isn't real obvious unless we listen for it we think we're hearing a full-range system! This may meet the needs of a few million uncaring listeners but you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't a little more discerning than that. For background music, the brilliantly psychoacoustically designed knickknack systems are fine, but if you ever really want to enjoy music or film...

I've been designing sat-sub systems for over 30 years. My designs feature low crossover points (70-100Hz compared to common 150-225Hz crossovers). Sat-sub systems can rival and sometimes surpass the sonic quality of larger speakers as long as designed properly with a low enough crossover. The choice between a Sat-sub system and some type of floor-standing tower can now be made on the basis of which will sound and look best in your room.

We hope this information is useful to you. Please keep it in mind the next time someone asks your advice on purchasing audio components, and refer them to this web site. We welcome your comments.

ACI, Sound that Satisfies...Since 1977