Remember back at the start of this article, I told you that you had to figure out what you were going to use the speakers for? If that "what" involved music, you'd better take some tunes along that you want to audition with. Pick material that you know well and have listened to on a reasonable quality system. What? You say you don't have one and this is actually going to be your first? No problem! Make your selection anyway and before you go speaker shopping drop into a home audio store and tell them you want to audition some of their mid level systems with some material you've brought with you. They'll be only too happy to help you.

So, what should you listen for?

Pay attention to Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar work on "Riviera Paradise" and how the guitar notes resonate. The depth and tightness of the bass on Beethoven's Fifth. The killer bassline on Nine Inch Nails' "Into The Void". The haunting quality of the vocals on Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity". The decay of the acoustic guitar notes on Toni Braxton's "Spanish Guitar". Carlos' wailing guitar solo on Santana's "Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile)". How deep and tight is the bass in Sade's "Somebody Already Broke My Heart" and is her voice drowned out by it or is it still sultry and smooth? How do Nickleback's vocals come across? Are they in-yer-face or muffled? Listen to how things sound and WHERE in the soundstage they are placed. Get a feel for good, tight punchy bass (the heavy, smooth riff of a bass guitar) - after that boomy bass will stand out like a sore thumb.

Differences in types of speakers and the kinds of sound they produce

OK, so now you have an idea of what things are supposed to sound like - don't rush off yet. Here are a couple of pointers on what kinds of speaker drivers and layouts produce what kinds of sound.

Flat panel speakers tend to produce a detailed soundstage with good placement of instruments. Remember what I said earlier about soundstage? That means you can tell where the instruments are in the music you're listening to and goes really well with detailed music like jazz, classical and blues. Horn-loaded drivers and their derivatives have a tendency to produce a "front row center" soundstage - there is less detail in terms of placement but a lot more immediacy to the sound which really endears them to listeners of alternative, metal and dance.

Satellites with a single all-purpose driver have a tendency to sacrifice highs because there is no dedicated tweeter to produce them. A system with dedicated tweeter and midrange drivers can generally (but not always) provide more dynamic range at the high end than one that has a single all-purpose driver, depending on how it's implemented and by who. The exception to this is the flat panel speaker because they often have the dynamic range to produce the highs anyway, even with a single driver. Their weakness lies in the mid-bass and lower midrange - they lose a certain "warmth" to the sound in those frequencies because they have trouble reproducing them. Some flat panel satellite designs offset this drawback by having hybrid satellites which contain a flat panel AND cone driver. The planar (flat panel) driver ends up being responsible for the highs and the cone driver deals with the midrange frequencies.

It's important to know that flat panels are also finicky for placement and have a sweetspot that is smaller than with speakers having cone drivers. What is the sweetspot? It's the location of the listener where the 3D spatial effects and soundstage are maximized - when you're outside the sweetspot, you'll still get good sound but you'll lose all the spatial effects. ALL speakers have this problem, by the way - it's a matter of degree.

A larger woofer doesn't necessarily equal tight, deep bass. It's quite possible to have a large bass driver produce boomy, sloppy bass with port noise that will result in roaring and rattling at high volume levels. It is also possible to have a relatively small subwoofer produce tight and punchy (albeit less deep) bass. It depends on how well the sub is designed and implemented - all subwoofers are NOT created equal, even within the same manufacturer's lineup. A good (but not absolute) rule of thumb with subwoofers is that an enclosure made of wood or MDF (medium density fibreboard - essentially wood chips and sawdust held together with glue) will produce a much better bass experience than one made of plastic. This is because that material improves internal damping and cuts down on resonance while still keeping the cost down. As I said however, this is not an absolute rule. I have experienced tight and punchy bass with no audible resonance from a small subwoofer enclosed in a plastic cabinet but in general this is the exception and not the norm.