Selecting Speakers Should be Easy, Part Two

Your room size and seating distance influence what speakers (paired with what amplification) will have enough output to work for you.

One of the most popular questions around here is "What speakers should I buy?"

There are at least two key aspects to this question, which is really at least two questions. What sounds good? And, What is "enough" output? This post is about that second question. The first question is answered here.

Output Capability: Your room size and seating distance influence what speakers will work for you.

If output is not adequate, nothing else matters. So the first factors to consider are your budget and the distance you sit from the speakers. These present hard limits on what will be feasible.

Budget is self explanatory, and there are good speakers from a few hundred dollars on up. If you have a flexible budget, you can broaden your search and use other factors to make your list of candidates.

Output capability is the criterion used to make sure the speaker can play loud enough at your seating distance, without damage/distortion. The industry standard is called "reference level" for cinema. This is pretty loud. If you like the audio level in an IMAX theater, you like "reference level." There are lower and higher targets in the CEDIA guidelines (RP22) for home theaters. Personally, I find that anything that can hit 100db at my seating position is adequate for my needs. (Note that making the room quiet can greatly reduce the need to play the speakers extremely loud.)

CEDIA describes the math for how to take the specifications from the speaker manufacturer, your seating distance, and your AVR or amplifier power output, and figure out what SPL (sound pressure level, how loud) you can achieve at your seating distance:

There are online calculators to make this a little easier.

Enter the seating distance, max power handling, and sensitivity for one speaker into this calculator:

Peak SPL Calculator.

And, congratulations, you just narrowed the field of speakers from "infinite" down to a smaller list that meet both your price point and your output needs.

Now, I like to prioritize the speakers from that group that I am most likely to like.