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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
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,395 posts
 
The most common mistake is selected amp not capable of driving speakers to their max. Like putting the wrong engine in a car and expecting optimal performance. 

Higher impedance easier load speakers alone are no guarantee of better sound. I’ve heard supposed easy load speakers run the gamut from very good to ear bleed just like any other.
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,634 posts
 
Speaker impedance.  
Nominal or low?  
Big difference.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,395 posts
 
Good read 

https://ohmspeaker.com/news/impedance-or-how-many-ohms-do-your-speakers-have/
p05129
508 posts
 
What a joke about not purchasing speakers with sensitivity ratings lower than 90 or lower than an 8 ohm load. In this 1 sentence, you pretty much eliminated every "best" speaker on the market. Most of these "best" speakers have sensitivity ratings in the middle to upper 80's and some go down below 4 ohms (some in the 2 ohm range). All this means, if you buy the best speaker, you also need to buy a better/best amp to drive them. If you want something cheap, then it really doesn't matter much.
bjesien
1,322 posts
 
P05129 that’s what I mean- so many people try to speak with authority and absolutes but they don’t know jack other than what they know and like. Another common one is when you own the same component as the “know it all” and don’t like it. “Must be your cable, your room acoustics, your electricity, etc.” Okay you dim witted crab clawed keyboard jockey try to find another reason to be right about something in your windowless basement. Oh my, I need to get rid of this site so many of the good people from years ago are gone. Still many here but maybe there’s hope in the new generation.
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