As most of you may know, purchasing electronics equipment can give you a serious headache if you don’t exactly know what you are looking for. Things get more and more advanced each day. Speaker shopping is no different, you have to consider several things when doing so.

I personally consider four main things when making a speaker purchase. Want to know what they are?

1. Type (Bookshelf or Floorstanding)

I initially liked the thought of having floorstanding speakers for my front left/right, rear left/right but ultimately decided on getting bookshelves for the rears since I figured that the lower half of the floorstanding speakers I have chosen will be blocked by the furniture/seating. Placement is also limited if I chose to go floorstanding speakers for the rears. I will not be able to place them high enough if I wanted to. My main consideration in going for a mostly floorstanding setup was also regarding getting a more identical sound stage. I also considered the cost of have floorstanders against bookshelves plus speaker stands.

Bookshelves allowed more flexibility in terms of placement. They can be put on top of a shelf or cabinet that is high enough. They can also be mounted on speaker stands. Since I will be using the setup mainly for movies, the rears will only be used for ambient sounds and environmental effects.

2. Aesthetics

I like speakers with the conventional box-shape look with a black finish. I don’t like the fancy stuff.

Some people may like things different such as having the following:

• Cabinet color being a certain shade of wood in order to match the interior of their home.
• Sleek speaker form factor, can either be curved on the sides or have an extremely flat shape to match flat panel displays.

3. Sound quality

I like highs to be forward-sounding and mids well-pronounced, lows are taken cared of by a subwoofer.

NEVER ever trust someone else to make a sound quality decision for you, every person’s ears are different. What may sound good to you may sound really bad to the next person. What’s important is what YOU like. It does not matter if the speakers you have are tremendously less in price compared to what your friends may have (who cares if your speakers are worth $250 compared to your friend’s $2,500 speakers as long as you’re happy with yours), what’s important is YOU like how your speakers sound. Take other people’s opinions simply as recommendations on what brands/models to give a listen to.

4. Price

I like the price to not break the bank or put a big hole in my wallet. Price highly depends on personal preference also, some may want to allot as much as $20,000 for a set of speakers while some may want to get a speaker set for just $250.

How about you? What are your main considerations when shopping for speakers?