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Reading the specs of speakers is irrelevant until you hear how they actually sound.
Sound is subjective; some people like more bass than others, people have different taste in music etc. Speakers cater for this, however, reviews may not, so don’t rely on other peoples impressions of how speakers sound. Comments on build quality / aesthetics are worth noting though.
Be sure to take in a variety of your own, favourite tracks - particularly those emphasising different sounds: String, Vocal, Drum, Electro
Stores like JB Hi-Fi / Retravision / The Good Guys are not equipped to play music in any way which resembles a ‘realistic’ lounge room experience – or at all. If you can’t hear it - don’t buy it. Don’t bother going to these places.
If you've got a large room, get large speakers. Small / Bookshelf / Reflective / Soundbar / Direct Reflective / Whatever-You-Want-To-Call-Them speakers have difficulty reaching loud volumes - particularly where bass is concerned when compared to Floor Standing speakers.
If you've got a small room, consider that large speakers will suffer by way of overblown (or under damped) bass response; larger speakers often need more space to "breathe".
Listening style comes into play when considering small vs large speakers too - people who listen to simpler styles of music (e.g. Jazz, acoustic, vocal) often favour bookshelf speakers because they are known to "image" (correctly present the location of the musicians both laterally and depth-wise) better due to their smaller cabinet sizes. Smaller speakers sometimes produce a better sense of "space" and can often be more "articulate" or "detailed" in the way they present music.
What's a large room?
When empty, 4x4 metres and above.
Home theatre requires theatre spec space. Consider holding off on purchasing anything until you have a suitable amount of room to fit the things you intend to get
A rough estimate on sizing, for entry-level components:
So, front left + front right + a sub somewhere in front = 1 metre of space GONE!
Depth is also noteworthy, as you lose around ½ a metre in ‘airspace’ behind the speaker and ½ a metre in physical device space.
Each speaker should be the same distance from the listener (so the sounds hit you at the same time) – A couple of caveats on this one:
If there are two or more people listening, there’s going to be a level of ‘offset’ from the centre. This can be particularly irritating with rear speakers that are noticeably closer to you – causing only the rear left / right to be audible.
You probably won’t perceive an issue if the rear speakers are physically closer to you than the front speakers, so long as they’re equally far apart from each other, and you reduce their volume or distance setup in the receiver accordingly.
Keep in mind that if you’re thinking about mounting surround speakers on the walls, the walls should be a similar distance from the couch, as suggested above.
Always ensure you test speakers with a flat E.Q, so you get a fair representation of how different speakers compare on a basic level. Once you get the speakers home, tweak the E.Q as you wish, but this will likely be more towards counter-acting negative effects, rather than adding more sweet bass. I don’t know enough about E.Q’s to dare comment further.
Buying quality and expanding the system over time trumps buying a lower-quality, complete system you can’t improve upon. More on this ahead.
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