1. Preliminary understanding of the speaker before the audition
A preliminary understanding of a pair of speakers can be identified by the steps of "observing, weighing, tapping and identifying": observing the process, weighing, tapping the box and identifying the nameplate.
Appearance technology is to judge the quality of the box from the first image of the box appearance: the box made of natural logs is of course the best, including many world-famous high-priced supreme boxes such as Chario and Guarneri in Italy. Because of environmental protection, lack of resources, long processing time and other factors, it will never be as popular as the ubiquitous "Rejoice" shampoo. Therefore, the common speakers are decorated with a thin layer of wood veneer on the surface of MDF medium density fiberboard: solid wood veneer, beautifully decorated speakers, especially rare wood veneers such as rosewood, sparrow eye, pear wood, walnut, Zhennan and red oak, which have excellent natural wood grain visual effect and smooth and comfortable feel. Especially those pianos polished with symmetrical butterfly pattern solid wood skin after multi-layer coating can be regarded as high-end boutique speakers, and there are very few counterfeit products. Boxes covered with PVC plastic belong to daily necessities. Although the workmanship is fine, it can only be regarded as low-grade goods at best. However, although the box decorated with this kind of paper veneer looks extreme, it is more important to pay attention to whether the sewing behind the box and the digging process of the horn installation position are accurate. Fake and shoddy products generally don't pay attention to these details, and they can be judged correctly with a little care.
Debugging comments: In fact, even on the HI-FI box, we can hardly see the real log box. Because the wood that can meet the requirements of manufacturing speakers is extremely scarce, for example, the wood used by Chario in many top products is the top Italian red oak that has grown for more than 40 years. According to the Italian environmental protection law, the buyer must replant 10 similar saplings in addition to paying the wood price for each such tree species cut down.
Second, weighing: Good speakers mostly use 18 ~ 25mm high-quality MDF particle board, while high-end flagship speakers use overweight solid wood such as rosewood and yellow pomelo or multi-layer composite plywood, which is amazing in weight. Usually, the net weight of a pair of speakers reaches 50 or 60 kilograms. Most middle and low-grade customers eat soft particleboard, while fake and inferior products use inferior paper rubber board, so the weight is generally light. There is often a saying in the audio industry that "experts look at quality, laymen weigh it", and heavy speakers are definitely better than light speakers. However, it is necessary to be wary of unscrupulous merchants pouring sand and cement at the bottom of the sound body to gain weight and deceive consumers.
Debugging comments: Here, we should pay attention to some wooden speaker products with arc box design. Although curved boxes have beautiful appearance, which is beneficial to acoustic design, due to the need of processing technology, the wood used in these boxes is often not as strong as the products with pure square structure. It's a bit of a dilemma
The third is to knock on the box: knock on the front, back, left and right baffles of the box with your knuckles, and the four sides of the box will be heavy and slightly brittle. It feels that the plate is hard and thick, supported by many reinforcing ribs inside, the box structure is reasonable and firm, and various sound insulation and standing wave prevention measures are adopted. This kind of box has high processing cost and great difficulty, and there are few fake and shoddy products. If you hit the box with your knuckles, it will make a "poof, poof" empty sound, indicating that the plate is too thin, the material is too poor and the structure is unreasonable. And there is no sound absorption material or reinforcement inside, which leads to a large number of diffuse reflection and standing waves in the box. You will never get a good playback effect if you buy this kind of speaker.
The fourth is to identify the nameplate: the really good speakers have well-made gold-plated or chrome-plated nameplate signs, and the nameplate is generally engraved with distinctive trademarks, companies, names, places of origin and corresponding indicators. Imported boxes are in English, such as xxx manufacturing or manufacturing, corresponding trademarks, speaker indicator lights, etc. If only the design ... (XX design) or only a country name is vaguely marked, even apart from a few simple and extremely imprecise basic indicators, neither the place of origin nor the manufacturer can be seen, and the trademark has no registration mark. Most of these three products are suspected of counterfeiting. Brand-name speakers attach great importance to brand image and corporate visibility, so the attached nameplate logo is very standardized and exquisite, with all indicators, corporate names and places of origin available. Some nameplates are even thin metal plated with 24K real gold, and the fonts on them are still uneven. The product not only has the date of manufacture and production serial number, but also has the matching serial number and the ID card attached to the packaging box. For this kind of speakers, as long as the price is reasonable, you can generally choose with confidence.
2. Judging the speaker from the technical indicators.
As mentioned above, a technical label is usually attached to the back of the finished speaker: the content is nothing more than the frequency range, sensitivity, carrying power and impedance of the speaker. Among them, sensitivity is the most important indicator of the speaker, which largely determines what kind of power amplifier the box should be equipped with, how much power it needs to push, and so on. The sensitivity of most audio-visual home speakers is between 86 and 92 decibels. For the same power amplifier, at the same volume (for example, the volume is adjusted to 10), the higher the sensitivity, the louder the sound, and the lower the power requirements and requirements of the speaker for the power amplifier. This is what people often say: speakers are easier to push. The sensitivity of professional speakers used in many commercial OK halls exceeds 100dB, so it's no wonder that many people think that singing karaoke in OK halls is very pleasant, and you can get a great volume with no effort. But don't think that the higher the sensitivity, the better. In fact, speakers with sensitivity over 92dB are all thin metal pots and PP pots, which will destroy the control of speakers, resulting in thin, beautiful, exaggerated and tough sound quality, and lack of many musical details and charm. Not suitable for high-fidelity listening. However, many famous mouths with rich and soft voices and full of music are usually less sensitive. For example, the sensitivity of top speakers such as Emperor ATC, Italian piano and Li Zhuo is only 82dB. This kind of speaker is often extremely difficult to serve, and it needs a giant power amplifier with a large output current to make it work in the ideal linear region, and the cost will never be small.
Debugging comments: Most multimedia speakers use high-sensitivity speakers. In fact, an important reason is that low-sensitivity units need high-power power amplifiers to promote them, so the increased cost of power amplifiers is not a fraction of the stars.
Another most important indicator is the frequency range. For example, the frequency range of the bookcase is 60Hz ~ 20 kHz 2.5 dB, and 60Hz represents the extension value of the speaker in the low frequency direction. The lower this number is, the better the low-frequency response of the speaker is: 20KHz represents the high-frequency spread that the speaker can achieve. The higher the number, the better the audio characteristics. The suffix +/- 2.5dB indicates the distortion of the above frequency range. The smaller the distortion, the flatter the frequency response curve will be. The distortion of some speaker labels is 3dB, and its frequency range should be wider. Some speakers do not indicate this indicator, and the frequency expansion range will become very wide. For example, if the above compass box 1 does not indicate that the distortion is controlled within the range of plus or minus 2.5 dB, the frequency range can be marked as 40 Hz ~ 23 kHz. It should be pointed out that it is meaningless not to mark the frequency range of distortion. If manufacturers knowingly commit crimes, they can only suspect that they have ulterior motives and deliberately deceive consumers. At the same time, it also shows that the speaker indicators are not standardized, manufacturers lack confidence in their products, and it is difficult for people to buy with confidence.
Bearing power is a reference index of speakers, expressed in watts. This index does not explain the quality of the speaker, but only provides a reference for selecting the power amplifier. For example, the bearing power of a pair of speakers is marked as 10 ~ 200W, which means that the power amplifier needed to drive the speakers must have at least 10~200W output power, but it is forbidden to use the power amplifier above 200W for full power output. Otherwise, there may be concerns about burning boxes. Generally speaking, home speakers will never be pushed, only the problem of pushing well and pushing badly. The carrying power below 200 watts is much more than that of ordinary families, and it is not deliberately pursued too high.
Another indicator of the loudspeaker is the impedance value, which is generally 8 Ω as its nominal value. The impedance value of most dual-frequency bookcases is 8 Ω, and multi-unit multi-frequency floor speakers also have 6 Ω and 4 Ω. The smaller the impedance value, the greater the current to be driven and the higher the power amplifier required. In my opinion, it's best to choose a home speaker with a good 8 Ω impedance and a power amplifier.
A good speaker should have obvious personality.
In modern audio equipment, speakers are the oldest and most magical members. Some people say that it has "spirituality" and "life", and it is the precipitation of a country's national style, history and culture. Indeed, as far as brand speakers are concerned, speakers made in different countries and nationalities are branded with the cultural literacy, natural endowment and personality traits of the nationals of the producing countries. Especially for speakers with higher quality and higher grade, this personality will be more obvious. Secondly, for users, the same excellent speakers with different personalities still have a taste, and they like a certain style. As the saying goes, "turnips and cabbages have their own tastes", some people like graceful and passionate demeanor, some like gentle and gentle hermit personality, some like grand symphony, heavy metal percussion and rock music, and some prefer small-scale pastoral classical music, elegant and graceful solo and sweet and heavy vocal reproduction ... Of course, you can choose the ideal speaker according to your own taste. If you don't understand the truth, you will be disappointed to choose the right speaker with your own taste! After all, this investment is not cheap. So I suggest that you might as well know more, listen more, run more authentic audio products, listen to the opinions of friends and experts before buying. Meanwhile, what style do you like? I might as well ask myself a few more times, what did I buy this speaker for? Listen to music? Watch DVD? Sing OK? or ...
As far as the style of the speaker itself is concerned, the so-called beautiful sound, British sound, European sound and so on are popular in the audio industry. Americans pay attention to great strength and great motivation, especially those produced in the western United States, such as JBL, BOSE, Genesis and so on. It often shows a free and easy, rough and generous timbre personality. This may be related to the heroic temperament of cowboys galloping in the grasslands of North America in the western United States. The United States has a vast territory, with mountains and rivers, dense forests, clear blue sky and rich products on the west coast. Coupled with the wild and unruly character of the cowboy in the west and the infiltration of Hollywood culture and art, the speakers produced in the west have bright and beautiful timbre, clean and neat sound, wide opening and closing, and a kind of confidence and confidence are revealed in the rough and unrestrained. The surplus of each index is very large, especially suitable for rock, jazz and heavy metal percussion, professional OK hall and other occasions. However, in violin solos and classical strings, the music is a little light. The speakers produced in the eastern United States are more influenced by British and European civilizations because of geographical factors. In addition, the famous Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra advocates classical symphonies and influences regional culture with a large number of performances every year. Therefore, the speakers produced in the eastern region, such as INFINITY and Westlake, have both soft and delicate styles and broad and bright styles. No matter from the analytical power, sense of speed, sound stage positioning and fragrance, it is obviously different from western speakers, and it is very popular in Europe and the Far East.
British speaker is a typical European royal lineage, with soft and sweet timbre, dignified and elegant shape, flashy but not bright, and natural wood bark reveals gentle aristocratic gentleman style. Several world-class classic car speakers-Rogers (Jazz), Spando (Spanda) and Chu Qing (After Rain) were born here. Coupled with the glory of the former empire and the subtle influence of medieval civilization, as well as the humid and foggy geographical environment of London and the idyllic pastoral like a small bridge, the English sound is gentle, sweet, delicate, steady and gentle. It occupies a very high position in the field of family Hi-Fi and even Hi-END, and is most suitable for the performance of classical strings and the reproduction of human voices. Unfortunately, it is not effective in expressing large dynamic explosion scenes and low frequency sense.
German-speaking people fully embody the meticulous, rigorous and self-disciplined professional spirit of the Germanic nation. The timbre is natural, neutral and peaceful, clean and refreshing. Especially in the industry, it is famous for its exquisite workmanship, which is amazing. But strictly speaking, the timbre of German box is slightly tough in Leng Yan, which is more suitable for the playback of pop music.
Other European voices, such as France, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Norway, etc., are full of French wit and romance and Italian Renaissance art. Nordic people are lively, cheerful and extremely exquisite traditional handicrafts: the timbre is pure and natural, the middle and high frequencies are slightly exaggerated, but they are very musical. And good compatibility, it is the best choice for family Hi-Fi/AV.
As for domestic high-quality speakers, there should also be a saying of "China's good voice". Recently, many experts and scholars are also writing articles to speculate. It's a pity that China's audio industry started late, including most manufacturers who are already famous in the Hi-Fi fever circle. It was not until the mid-1990s that they began to set foot in real hi-fi sound. At present, if the initial capital accumulation stage of "theory and practice" has not been completed, it is difficult to form its own unique style with any "voice". However, in just a few years, domestic boutique speakers have made a qualitative leap. The author thinks that a few domestic fine speakers have formed their own embryonic form, but they can only be described as similar to a well-known brand in a certain country. Hivi, for example, is quite similar to American sound, while the Voice of War series, Syndeco classic series and compass series are more reminiscent of British sound (but perhaps the explosion point and speed are slightly stronger than authentic British goods). However, the small whirlwind and Jin Lang are more or less contaminated with European customs: only the bookcase "Canghai Longtong" carefully brewed by Mr. Zhang Bailiang has a unique flavor, with mild and neutral color, exquisite elegance, gentle and unrestrained appearance, and the traditional China soil paint is antique and natural, which really makes people feel a little "China sound". It is believed that based on the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization, the ancient rhyme of the flat bell and Gong Yanxiong's muddy music from Xia, Shang and Tang Dynasties, as well as the unique implication, connotation and colorful feelings of China people, as well as the traditional cultural essence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, such as "moderation", "combining two into one" and "inaction", it is believed that in the near future, there will be a world-recognized "China Sound" application.
4. A good speaker should be very tolerant of listening.
I don't know if you have ever experienced it. When you turn on the stereo and enjoy music with great interest, at first you feel that the timbre is good and the sound is strong enough, especially the middle and high frequencies are bright and moving, and the low frequencies are also satisfactory. But after listening for a while, I felt uncomfortable. I was so tired that I had to turn off my cell phone and go. This kind of "tired" speaker can't keep the guests, because it makes people feel "noisy" and annoying. A "noisy" speaker means that the box is distorted and uncomfortable to listen to. Certainly not a good speaker.
Listening to a good speaker with good quality is like tasting a 30-year-old flower carving daughter line buried deep underground. The owner feels sweet and refreshing, and the beer is long. That kind of "sweet" and "warm" music charm will make you forget time, space and even your own existence and indulge in the ocean of music. No matter how long you listen to it, you will never get bored.
A good speaker has extremely low distortion. So no matter the volume, it will make you sound very pleasant. Even if the volume is turned up to the maximum power, the speaker will burst into earth-shattering sound. The low frequency will roll like thunder in midsummer, which will only make you feel realistic and even horrible, but it will never let you escape.
Generally speaking, speakers with thin voice, hard timbre and fast speech are not very pleasant to listen to. We can be sure that it is caused by the thin speaker, poor sound absorption, simplified frequency divider and low grade speaker. Nature is not a good speaker. A good speaker is very resistant to listening, it can not only retain guests, but also the longer you listen, the more cooked you cook, the better your timbre will be. No wonder so many audio lovers enjoy it and have a high fever!
A good speaker can hear the most subtle information in the music background.
The speaker's expression of musical details determines the speaker's analytical ability. A high-resolution box can contain a huge amount of music information, especially music background information. People can't hear more music details, harmonious aftertaste and multi-angle, multi-direction, diversified and multi-level music sound field through the theme unit. Listening to the first song "Forgotten Time" of Cai Qin (film number DJCD-96 108) recorded by Dianjiang, Taiwan Province, the first few words are cantata: "Who is knocking at my window and who is plucking the strings, then the forgotten time gradually lifts my heart ..." When a good speaker performs this passage, this song is a cantata. High-resolution speakers can even let you hear the subtle sound of the band flipping the score and the sound of the player's footsteps sliding gently on the ground during the performance. Don't think the author is bragging, as long as the CD is recorded well and the playback equipment is of good quality, everything is possible.
Debugging comments: In two, at least on multimedia speakers, most products with particularly clear teeth sound are actually faulty in frequency division processing. ...
A good speaker can faithfully reflect and reproduce all kinds of signal sources recorded on the CD, can explode into colorful colors, can be slender enough to tremble in the air and can be invisible. So before choosing a speaker, prepare a CD with a lot of music information you are familiar with on weekdays. For example, Taiwan Province UFO Record Company recorded Zhu Zheqin's "Yang Jinma" (film number YT-84), which is a test disc with an amazing amount of music information. After listening to this disc, you can distinguish the destroyer Xuefeng whistling in the background by Zhu Zheqin's crystal clear special singing. The Himalayas pushed Chai Fei away and began a day's work through the creaking new snow in the morning. You can even hear several paintings of Beifeng Valley in Tibet very clearly. It is impossible for a speaker with poor resolution to provide such a rich music feast.
Of course, when listening to the resolution of the speaker, you should be careful to use particularly explosive signal sources, such as explosive movies synthesized by artificial electronics, heavy metal rock music and percussion music, which can certainly leave a deep impression on people, but the huge loudness will cover up many inherent shortcomings of the equipment. At the same time, don't turn up the volume deafening, because the human ear has strict limits on the loudness of the sound. Once the sound exceeds the limit, it will become dull and even unbearable for a while. There is no way to judge the details of music.
6. A good speaker can make you listen to audio-visual positioning accurately.
The so-called audio-visual positioning refers to the pronunciation position of each instrument when playing. For example, in a large-scale symphony concert, speakers with audio-visual positioning will make you feel the orchestra display as shown in the following figure: the first violin group and the second violin group are generally located on the left side of the stage, the piano and harp are behind the left side, the cello array is generally on the right side of the stage, followed by the bass array. In the center of the stage are viola array, flute, oboe, horn, bassoon, trombone, trumpet, percussion and timpani.
A good speaker can accurately reproduce the sound field positioning with distinct layers. Even if you are not an enthusiast, under the guidance of experts, you can hear the sounds of various musical instruments coming from different positions in front of you, such as front, back, left and right, not just the mixed melody of various sounds from two speakers. Better speakers, auditioned in a professional audition room with strict acoustics and moderate size, you can even feel the unique sense of space and scene at the concert!
Of course, as far as ordinary consumers are concerned, it is impossible to have such a good professional listening room for you. You can only choose speakers in the harsh acoustic environment randomly released by the audio shop. However, this is not important. Take some CDs where the musical instruments are placed in advance, such as Yin Chengzong's piano concerto "Yellow River" played by Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Adrian Lipper: from the stage point of view, the piano is placed on the left in front of the stage, the cello is on the right, the double bass is on the right, the horn is in the middle, and the violin group is on the left. If you sit in front of the speaker and play back the recording, you should also be able to feel the sound field positioning effect very close to the on-site courtyard. That is to say, the sound of the piano is absolutely on the left in the middle. A good speaker should be able to hear that when the piano is solo, the treble is on the left and the bass is in the middle. At the same time, you will feel Yin Chengzong's hands jumping back and forth in the left and right positions of the piano, resulting in wonderful audio-visual movement. If the speaker is not good, you may hear the piano sound on both sides of the speaker at the same time, or the double bass that should belong to the right speaker becomes the middle or left speaker, causing sound field confusion. This kind of professional speaker is called poor phase characteristics or phase disorder, which is definitely not desirable.
For another example, when listening to a CD vocal disc, the human voice is emitted from the left and right speakers, but it gives you the actual feeling that the singer is standing in the middle of the speakers and singing at a position where there is no speaker at all. This phenomenon is called spatial sound source image. A good speaker, such a sound source knot can be felt by almost everyone. The best speakers can make you feel that this person is singing not far from you when you close your eyes, and even let you feel the height of the characters and the size of the singing mouth. This is the so-called "positioning", which sounds very mysterious. In fact, the speaker that can correctly "locate" the sound source is a high-fidelity speaker, and of course it can also be called a good speaker.
7.Hi-Fi speakers and AV speakers don't conflict, but focus on it.
With the increasing temperature of home theater, many friends often call me to consult the author when purchasing speakers, saying that there are many speakers specially designed and produced for home theater in the market, and some of them are even tailored by world-renowned manufacturers for China home theater. So, have these specially designed AV speakers adopted any new technologies and processes? Are they different from traditional hi-fi music boxes? How different are they? Many friends said that their speakers should not only enjoy music, but also watch * *, occasionally play karaoke and eat three fish! Therefore, we can't decide whether to choose a dedicated AV speaker or a Hi-Fi speaker. Except for a few speakers with outstanding personality, most of them have very good acoustic reproduction ability, which is absolutely competent for all kinds of sound effects of "home theater". Even a small bookcase, such as Dream School 700, is short of low frequency due to the limitation of the unit, but it can still be extremely explosive with a subwoofer! The only difference is that the so-called special box for home theater only has a little magnetic shielding treatment on the speaker to prevent the screen from being too close to the TV (generally within 35 cm). Then deliberately exaggerate the low frequency end of the frequency divider to enhance the bass effect. The vibrating basin of the horn should also be made of light, thin and hard materials to obtain faster speed and higher sensitivity. The sound quality of most AV speakers is not high, and the distortion is often large. But when it is used to watch European and American action movies, the volume is often very loud, and there are many wonderful and intense shots to attract your attention, so that you have no time to pay attention to the performance of the sound. This cleverly covers up many congenital defects and distortions, and does not meet the requirements of real home theater speakers. Real home theater boxes need high resolution and good sound field reproduction, and at the same time, there must be no noise.
At the same time, these requirements are exactly the same for high-fidelity speakers. A really good speaker can't be far away from the home theater. But the so-called special AV box that can only be used in home theaters is definitely not a good box. Generally speaking, at the International Audio Exhibition held in Las Vegas every year, many five-star speakers on the list never have a special box for "home theater". In fact, the special box for home theater in China market is a popular and cheap product derived from VCD, which is widely popular in China. Today, I dare to talk about Hi-Fi speakers, mostly because of the hype of manufacturers and merchants and misleading advertisements. Therefore, when you are equipped with a home theater, the author reminds you to give priority to learning a pair of Hi-Fi speakers with excellent performance as the main box. The rest of the center and surround should also be selected in strict accordance with the above requirements, and it is best to buy brand-name products produced by regular Hi-Fi manufacturers. By the way, for friends who want to enjoy karaoke and prefer to play karaoke, choosing a pair of three-band floor speakers can not only avoid the trouble of matching subwoofers, but also avoid the fear of burning tweeters. You might as well pay more attention.