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All set to buy a new music system? Then according to Pradeep Pitchumani you should start by first picking a good pair of speakers, and then go in for components that work well with the speakers.

Think that's ridiculous? Not if you take a look at the reasoning behind it. Speakers are components that receive the boosted signal from the amplifiers and convert it to sound. The speaker load is extremely variable which means that different speakers will require different amplifier characteristics.

Furthermore, speakers introduce the most distortion into the system. Except for very expensive speakers, any decent CD player, interconnect, amplifier, or speaker cable will introduce less distortion than the speakers will. That is not to say that the other components will not effect the sound: just that the speakers will effect the sound a great deal more.

So start by finding the speakers that you like and then find the electronic gadgetry that blends well with the speakers.

Starting the hunt!

Make no mistake. It is extremely difficult to select a good speaker that accurately reproduces the signals it receives. Unless you are pumping in a lot of dough, you will have to make trade-offs while selecting a speaker.
Since all low- and mid-priced speakers have flaws, speaker preference will be entirely personal.
Therefore, the best way to select a speaker would be through auditioning.You have to listen to decide.

It's common to find individuals who will largely agree upon the relative merits of an amplifier or a CD player but are at loggerheads when the subject turns to speakers. Moreover, even when two people hear the same system under identical circumstances, their appreciation of the system's balance of strengths and weaknesses may differ. Their emotional reactions may well be radically different, too.

The truly troubling aspect of this oft-repeated observation is not that people react differently to the same musical stimulus but that when several listeners each play music they like on the system, you would think their reaction would be more or less uniform. Not so.
Also an educated listener in a familiar, relaxed environment will be more accurate in his or her assessment than an average of trained and untrained listener in unfamiliar, stressful circumstances.
What this means is that speakers that sound 'great' to your ears may be horrible to mine. Whoever said 'God is in the nuances' hit the nail on the head.

Speaker types

Most stores carry what are called Monopole Dynamic, which is the term given to the conventional front firing speakers. They are speakers that are mounted on the front of the enclosure and wired in-phase. You will see them either in a ported or a sealed enclosure.

The other conventional type is the Horn speaker. These speakers use regular drivers that are located at the base of a horn-type structure. Audiophiles believe that these are the most efficient speakers.

Then you have Dipole Planar, Bipolar Dynamic, and Dipole Dynamic speakers. The science of these speakers is as complicated and convoluted as their names, and generally used in home theatre systems rather than stereo systems.

Based on the size, you have tower or bookshelf speakers. The bookshelf has better drivers and cabinets compared to its floor standing counterpart, but the former is much more expensive.

Don't get bogged down by specifications

Specifications are not critical. In fact, they should be read only after you listen to the speakers. Incidentally, this should be the norm with any stereo system component. The specifics are never directly proportional to what you hear. The prime reason being that each manufacturer has his unique way of writing the component design specifications.

• Speakers may be 4-way, 3-way, 2-way or 1-way. The number of 'ways' refers to the number of bands the frequency is divided into. A 3-way speaker uses at least three drivers that handle different frequencies such as a woofer (lows), a midrange (middle), and a tweeter (highs). If you are comparing two speakers, one being a 2-way and the other a 3-way, there is no correlation to the way it will sound. A 2-way speaker can sound just as good or maybe better than a 3- or even a 4-way speaker. The speaker drivers, cabinet, and quality of parts in the crossover have a larger effect on performance. So never base a purchase on if the speaker is a 2-way or 3-way or so on.