Crysalis
Systems Engineer
- Messages
- 1,675
- Location
- United States
So... you're lookin fer some bumpin speakers eh? Well, heres some tips for you. Headphones can also follow these guidelines!
First of all, wattage isn't everything. Wattage is only the power your feeding to it. Also, especially when looking at 5.1 or 7.1 systems, when the box says "A WHOPPING 100w!", you have to remember... that 100watts is divided 6 ways (5.1) or even 8 ways (7.1). Usually, the sub will get most of the power and the satellites will get a miniscule amount. Higher wattage is good, but not always better. As this is just basic information, I'm not going to get into RMS and Peak power ratings, but researching these two forms of power is DEFINITELY a must when looking at speakers/amps. Also, resistance (ohms) is another thing you may want to dabble into.
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Since wattage isn't everything, what is? Sensitivity!!! Ok... so you spent your hard earned cash on some awesome speakers with 500 watts of power. Freakin sweet eh? You open the box, get everything all set up and you go to press PLAY anxiously waiting for your heart to be resuscitated by the massive 500watts flowing through them speakers. You press play and what you hear is good. Then you take the dive and turn the volume up. "WTF?! I've got these things all the way up and they aren't loud whatsoever!! WHAT BS!!!" Sensitivity my good friend. So what is sensitivity? Well, in most specifications you will see a section called Signal to noise ratio (SNR) or sensitivity. Then you will get a number followed by dB (decibels). Say this number is 50dB (which is horrendous), that means for every one watt of power going in, 50 decibels of sound will come out (if playing white noise at nominal level). Most consumer quality stuff ranges from 70-80's. You really want at least 89dB. Anything above 90 will give you plenty of volume and will use its wattage more efficiently.
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Anything else? DUH! We haven't even scratched the surface! Frequency range!! Frequency range is that weird section of numbers that no one ever understands. (100-20,000hz). What the heck does that mean? Well, hz (hertz) is a measurement of how many times a sound wave cycles in one second. So, the lower the number, the slower the wave. Thusly, the slower the wave, the lower it sounds. The human hearing range is technically 20hz-20,000hz (or 20khz). I consider the USABLE range to be 30hz-18khz Although I can hear 20-20k, people above 25 years old(ranges) can't hear much above 17k due to hearing damage (no matter what you do, it happens when you get older).
A GOOD frequency range is having the first number as low as possible and the second number as high as possible. So, if your speakers have a 75hz-16,000hz (which is not so great) range, if you play anything below or above those numbers, you wont hear it as your speakers can't play it. Chest thumping is normally found around 30-60hz. A good range I like to follow is to keep the first number below 50hz and the high number at least at 18khz (or 18,000hz).
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Digital versus analog! WHAT?! THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS DIGITAL SPEAKERS! NEVER! Speakers are purely an analog mechanism. A speaker consists of a magnet, a voice coil, a spider and a cone (with a dust cap in the middle, which really serves no purpose). Essentially, the speaker vibrates (in AND out) to move molecules which form sound waves. When a description says DIGITAL SPEAKERS, that means it has a digital to analog converter (AD/DA) OR it has a digital decoder built in. Digital connections only transmit information. No audio whatsoever. Just a bunch of ones and zeros.
So now you should have a basic understanding about speakers and headphones. Now, go out and get yourself some GOOD speakers (excluding Bose).
Whats next? Wiring!
Let's say you've got some sweet speakers and a really sweet amp. Rock on eh? Car install, home theater, whatever... wiring it all up goes here! There are a few different ways to wire things up, but first we gotta understand the basics:
This is used for figuring Impedence (resistance), wattage, voltage, and current. Simple math as long as you know the information. Anyways, back to resistance. You know how on your amplifier it says it can handle X amount of ohms? Well, thats what is called Load. 8ohms and 4ohms are the most common, but there are components that run even lower than that. How do we figure out load? Well, that all depends on how things are wired up. There are three ways to wire: Series, Parallel, and Series Parallel (I know, scary... don't worry). When hooking up more than one speaker, you have to use one of these wiring methods. Though it may seem obvious, but "black goes to black and red goes to red". These are the positive and negative leads. This gets into phase, which we'll learn a bit later.
Series:
As you can see, there are two 8ohm speakers hooked up. When you wire them in series method, you add the resistance of all of the speakers, and you get your load. In this case, 8+8= 16ohm load. REMEMBER! The higher the resistance, the lower the output. Why? Most amplifiers can handle high loads. The less resistance there is, the more power the speakers will draw from the amp, the more output (and we all know what that means... LOUDER!). The smaller load rating on the amp, the better. If the amp can handle 2 ohms, you better be sure it can give you more than enough power for any application. In the case of the picture above, it won't be very hard at all for the amp to drive those two speakers, but keep in mind that it sure isn't going to get that loud. It may be better to wire it in a different method, such as parallel!
Parallel:
Here we have the same to speakers, but wired differently. When wiring in parallel, you multiply the resistance of all of the speakers, and divide it by the sum of all the resistance of the speakers. This will give you your load rating. Here we have two 8ohm speakers wired in parallel. So, we take 8 * 8 = 64 ---- 64 / 16 = 4 ---- This gives us a load of 4ohms. If we were to hook up this to the same amplifier as we did with series, we would get a much high output since it is drawing much more power from the amp.
Series Parallel
....MORE TO COME LATER....
First of all, wattage isn't everything. Wattage is only the power your feeding to it. Also, especially when looking at 5.1 or 7.1 systems, when the box says "A WHOPPING 100w!", you have to remember... that 100watts is divided 6 ways (5.1) or even 8 ways (7.1). Usually, the sub will get most of the power and the satellites will get a miniscule amount. Higher wattage is good, but not always better. As this is just basic information, I'm not going to get into RMS and Peak power ratings, but researching these two forms of power is DEFINITELY a must when looking at speakers/amps. Also, resistance (ohms) is another thing you may want to dabble into.
------------------
Since wattage isn't everything, what is? Sensitivity!!! Ok... so you spent your hard earned cash on some awesome speakers with 500 watts of power. Freakin sweet eh? You open the box, get everything all set up and you go to press PLAY anxiously waiting for your heart to be resuscitated by the massive 500watts flowing through them speakers. You press play and what you hear is good. Then you take the dive and turn the volume up. "WTF?! I've got these things all the way up and they aren't loud whatsoever!! WHAT BS!!!" Sensitivity my good friend. So what is sensitivity? Well, in most specifications you will see a section called Signal to noise ratio (SNR) or sensitivity. Then you will get a number followed by dB (decibels). Say this number is 50dB (which is horrendous), that means for every one watt of power going in, 50 decibels of sound will come out (if playing white noise at nominal level). Most consumer quality stuff ranges from 70-80's. You really want at least 89dB. Anything above 90 will give you plenty of volume and will use its wattage more efficiently.
------------------
Anything else? DUH! We haven't even scratched the surface! Frequency range!! Frequency range is that weird section of numbers that no one ever understands. (100-20,000hz). What the heck does that mean? Well, hz (hertz) is a measurement of how many times a sound wave cycles in one second. So, the lower the number, the slower the wave. Thusly, the slower the wave, the lower it sounds. The human hearing range is technically 20hz-20,000hz (or 20khz). I consider the USABLE range to be 30hz-18khz Although I can hear 20-20k, people above 25 years old(ranges) can't hear much above 17k due to hearing damage (no matter what you do, it happens when you get older).
A GOOD frequency range is having the first number as low as possible and the second number as high as possible. So, if your speakers have a 75hz-16,000hz (which is not so great) range, if you play anything below or above those numbers, you wont hear it as your speakers can't play it. Chest thumping is normally found around 30-60hz. A good range I like to follow is to keep the first number below 50hz and the high number at least at 18khz (or 18,000hz).
------------------
Digital versus analog! WHAT?! THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS DIGITAL SPEAKERS! NEVER! Speakers are purely an analog mechanism. A speaker consists of a magnet, a voice coil, a spider and a cone (with a dust cap in the middle, which really serves no purpose). Essentially, the speaker vibrates (in AND out) to move molecules which form sound waves. When a description says DIGITAL SPEAKERS, that means it has a digital to analog converter (AD/DA) OR it has a digital decoder built in. Digital connections only transmit information. No audio whatsoever. Just a bunch of ones and zeros.
So now you should have a basic understanding about speakers and headphones. Now, go out and get yourself some GOOD speakers (excluding Bose).
Whats next? Wiring!
Let's say you've got some sweet speakers and a really sweet amp. Rock on eh? Car install, home theater, whatever... wiring it all up goes here! There are a few different ways to wire things up, but first we gotta understand the basics:
- Ohms (impedence or resistance)
- Wattage
- Load
- Phase
This is used for figuring Impedence (resistance), wattage, voltage, and current. Simple math as long as you know the information. Anyways, back to resistance. You know how on your amplifier it says it can handle X amount of ohms? Well, thats what is called Load. 8ohms and 4ohms are the most common, but there are components that run even lower than that. How do we figure out load? Well, that all depends on how things are wired up. There are three ways to wire: Series, Parallel, and Series Parallel (I know, scary... don't worry). When hooking up more than one speaker, you have to use one of these wiring methods. Though it may seem obvious, but "black goes to black and red goes to red". These are the positive and negative leads. This gets into phase, which we'll learn a bit later.
Series:
As you can see, there are two 8ohm speakers hooked up. When you wire them in series method, you add the resistance of all of the speakers, and you get your load. In this case, 8+8= 16ohm load. REMEMBER! The higher the resistance, the lower the output. Why? Most amplifiers can handle high loads. The less resistance there is, the more power the speakers will draw from the amp, the more output (and we all know what that means... LOUDER!). The smaller load rating on the amp, the better. If the amp can handle 2 ohms, you better be sure it can give you more than enough power for any application. In the case of the picture above, it won't be very hard at all for the amp to drive those two speakers, but keep in mind that it sure isn't going to get that loud. It may be better to wire it in a different method, such as parallel!
Parallel:
Here we have the same to speakers, but wired differently. When wiring in parallel, you multiply the resistance of all of the speakers, and divide it by the sum of all the resistance of the speakers. This will give you your load rating. Here we have two 8ohm speakers wired in parallel. So, we take 8 * 8 = 64 ---- 64 / 16 = 4 ---- This gives us a load of 4ohms. If we were to hook up this to the same amplifier as we did with series, we would get a much high output since it is drawing much more power from the amp.
Series Parallel
....MORE TO COME LATER....