Cheap Speakers


A standard three way speaker will have a tweeter, midrange and a woofer - examine each.

Be wary of gimmicks such as paper or cardboard disguised as a space-age material or cones being disguised as ribbon speakers. A real ribbon speaker is generally very high quality and well out of the price range of any speaker that would employ a ribbon disguise trick. Paper cones aren't necessarily bad, but they're cost-cutting measures for low-budget speakers. Today's high-tech plastic speaker diaphragm technology has left paper and cardboard cones far behind.
Watch for large passive radiators disguised as woofers. Nothing looks more impressive on a floor standing speaker than an active 12" woofer, except when it's really just a passive radiator. The passive radiator or auxiliary bass radiator is really not much more than a port, and not necessarily a sign of poor design. However it's not uncommon for dubious speaker manufacturers to prominently display an oversized auxiliary bass radiator so as to be mistaken for an active woofer.

Currently, small speakers are "in" but small cones can't move the air of larger cones despite great leaps in technology. Beware of claims that micro-satellite speakers (cones of 2-3" in diameter) can produce the sound of larger full-range speakers through some technological breakthrough.

Good quality speakers use solid materials such as aluminum for dome tweeters. Poor quality speakers make flimsy plastic or shiny rubber caps appear to be real metal dome tweeters.

Be skeptical of any text on the front of speaker boxes themselves. Charts, graphs and especially adjectives or meaningless exclamations such as "digital ready" are sure signs of speaker manufacturer with an inferiority complex. Speakers should have a single label on the back reading the model, manufacturer and minimal technical information about the speaker.

One of the most important things you should do when shopping for speakers is to write down the make and model number then do a little research online, to find out what owners of the speaker system say.