Are Huge Speakers Really Necessary

Ever have a car pull up next to you at a red light blaring music so loudly that your car actually seems to shake with every beat? Annoying, irritating and plain rude, that sound can be blamed on a woofer that’s probably too big and powerful for the irresponsible driver to handle or even an amplifier that’s cranked beyond sensible.

That kind of sound amplification and quality isn’t necessary for a good car stereo system. And in some cases with the volume up that high, it’s illegal. After all, one person’s music is another’s noise and few outside of your car want to hear every note and feel it, too.

A good car stereo system doesn’t have to rock the neighborhood to be good. What’s important is the quality of the sound to the people inside the car, not outside it.

Shopping for car speakers can be a little confusing for someone that’s never done it before, but the process doesn’t have to be painful. There is a huge variety of speakers available to meet just about every price range. Bigger, louder and more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better.

When shopping for car speakers consider the kind of music that will be played most of the time. Also consider how you like to listen to your music. Do you like to concentrate on the words with the instruments fading into the background? Does every note from every instrument make your heart swoon?

Simplistic speakers that can handle decent output without blowing up often work well for most music listeners. These generally come in a “coaxial” unit, which means the woofer and tweeter (the speaker that plays the high notes) are packaged together. Typical for car stereo systems, these can provide the right kind of sound for most drivers.

Component speakers come separately and are installed that way. This is the choice of the more serious listener, and unfortunately, often the choice of the kid who wants to wake the entire neighborhood up at 2 a.m. These speakers offer a sound quality that’s generally “better” but that’s not always the case.

If you’re shooting for quality, but don’t have a huge budget, look for speakers that are made of decent materials, offer a good output capability in watts, and can be adjusted well through the receiver. Woofers should have more rigid component materials and tweeters should be softer in their casing.

Huge speakers don’t mean better speakers. Look, listen and follow your instincts. If it sounds great to you, it probably is.

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