The two most common mistakes are bass and treble


OK, so I know many of you will have a knee jerk reaction to that with something like "well you've just covered most of the spectrum!" but I mean to say more than what I can fit in a headline.

When first purchasing speakers the biggest regrets, or sometimes bad choices without regret, is looking for a speaker that is too detailed. In the store over 10 minutes it mesmerizes you with the resolution of frequencies you thought you would never hear again.  You take the speakers home and after a month you realize they are ear drills.  High pitched, shrill sounding harpies you can't believe you listened to long enough to make a choice.

The other mistake, which audiophiles life with far too long is buying too big a speaker for the room.  The specmanship of getting 8 more Hertz in the -3dB cutoff is a huge factor in speaker purchases.

What do you think the biggest mistakes are when buying speakers?
erik_squires
Inefficient and low impedance speakers are IMO/IME a mistake.


All amps make more distortion playing into lower impedance. If you want the amp to sound smoother and more detailed, set it up to drive a higher impedance.


Inefficient speakers need really powerful amps to play properly, and they suffer thermal compression. Really powerful amps that actually sound like real music are not that common and likely pretty expensive, when the whole thing could have been solved without any loss of bandwidth or resolution by simple getting a speaker that's easier to drive.


Speaker cables get far more critical on low impedance speakers too. You can easily spend $$$$s on speaker cables, but if you have a higher impedance speaker the cables simply won't bring as much to the table.
Hey @atmasphere 

Not saying you are incorrect, but give me an idea of a couple of common inefficient speakers, and a couple you think do a great job.

What is your cut-off for efficiency and impedance, more or less?  What is good, and what is bad?

Best,
Erik