12 best home acoustic speakers
Neither a home theater nor a high-end amplifier can be imagined without a full-fledged and high-quality speaker system. The choice of acoustics is now simply huge - from affordable speakers for unassuming listeners to Hi-End class systems, where, however, more money is worth the mark than the sound itself.
Today we will try to find a middle ground, that is, acoustics, which will not leave indifferent, and at the same time deprived of unreasonably expensive audiophiles. We will choose the best speakers for the house in three main categories:
- Outdoor speakers- A good choice if you have enough space for installation. Large internal volume allows to achieve optimal conditions for low-frequency speakers, the height makes it possible to distribute the frequency bands across a greater number of speakers. So, although such acoustics are often advised for home theaters, the music lover will be able to find its advantages in it.
- Shelving and hanging (many models allow both installation options) the speakers are compact and fit best in a limited space, but here you have to resort to separate tricks to achieve good bottoms in a small volume. The sound is often dual-band, so the midbass gets both the low-frequency band and the mid-frequency band.
- Subwoofers We need both to raise the lows with acoustics, where they are not enough, and for the full effect of presence when watching movies and playing on consoles: you can even make the floor shake at the sound of explosions, if, of course, neighbors appreciate it.
In this ranking - the best speakers, popular in the 2018-2019 year and deserved positive feedback from experts and ordinary customers.
Category | A place | Name | Rating | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
Top floor speakers | 1 | Monitor Audio Bronze 6 | 9.9 / 10 | 69 990 |
2 | Heco Victa Prime 602 | 9.8 / 10 | 32 900 | |
3 | DALI Zensor 5 | 9.7 / 10 | 39 500 | |
4 | Wharfedale Diamond 11.4 | 9.6 / 10 | 68 990 | |
5 | Yamaha NS-777 | 9.3 / 10 | 44 990 | |
Top bookshelf speakers | 1 | Tannoy Revolution XT 6 | 10 / 10 | 73 700 |
2 | Polk Audio RTi A1 | 9.8 / 10 | 27 990 | |
3 | KRK ROKIT 5 G3 | 9.8 / 10 | 13 440 | |
4 | BEHRINGER Truth B2030A | 9.7 / 10 | 12 490 | |
The best subwoofers for home | 1 | Wharfedale SW-15 | 9.9 / 10 | 42 590 |
2 | Heco Victa Prime Sub 252 A | 9.8 / 10 | 29 900 | |
3 | DALI SUB E-12 F | 9.7 / 10 | 49 900 | |
4 | Bowers & Wilkins ASW608 | 9.5 / 10 | 39 490 |
Top floor speakers
Monitor Audio Bronze 6
69 990
Although the grill with magnetic mount comes bundled with these speakers, it doesn’t raise a hand - Bronze 6 looks much more attractive with open speakers. Moreover, even near it is difficult at first glance to understand that the body is laminated, and not of solid walnut, the quality of the coating is excellent. The assembly is as close to perfect as possible in general in our reality: everything fits perfectly, there are no flaws even in inconspicuous places. The 165-mm spherical midrange speakers are the first to strike the eye, and let's begin with them. Their diffusers are made of branded material C-CAM - an aluminum-magnesium alloy with a ceramic coating. Because of this, they came out light and very durable, with excellent response - and hence the worked out nuances of the sound, along with the absence of distortion at the volume peaks. This is especially important because the exact same diffuser is used on the subwoofer: of the three seemingly identical loudspeakers, only the upper one is responsible for the MF, and two of them are woofers. The inner space is separated for each band, the tweeter is structurally closed on the inside, and the low-frequency section with two phase inverters is separated from the volume of the mid-frequency cell by a partition. The sound was especially successful at mid frequencies. He collected, extremely detailed. The bass at first glance may seem flat, but if you listen carefully, you understand the creators' goal: extremely high intelligibility is preserved, the lower part of the low-frequency spectrum does not clog the upper one.The sound here is not “characteristic”, but closer to the reference one. But, despite the very name Monitor Audio, acoustics cannot be called boring-monitor: the music really lives in it. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.9 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Great sound that allows you to fully appreciate the technique of the musician, all the nuances of the scene. |
32 900
When creating the front speakers Victa Prime, a curious solution was used - for the LF and MF bands it is responsible for a pair of speakers of the same 120-millimeter diameter, while the high-frequency speakers are taken over by traditional inch tweeters. As a result, we get acoustics with excellent sensitivity, capable of playing all the nuances of sound. The fans of ultra-low synthetic bass will not like the sound of this series, but this is expected - for them in the Victa Prime series there is a separate subwoofer, while the front covers were created primarily with the expectation of natural sound.
A decent nominal power (160 watts per speaker, with a peak of 280) will require attention if you want to load all-money acoustics — either use full biamping or put attenuators in the high-frequency channel to avoid damaging the tweeters. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.8 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Excellent jazz-blues acoustics, just fit perfectly into this genre. Yes, and you can watch movies with pleasure, maximum - to buy a sub. |
39 500
The fifth model in the Zensor lineup is positioned by the Danish manufacturer as a budget, although with the current exchange rate with this one can argue. Nevertheless, these outdoor speakers came out very good and very interesting: paper diffusers of two midbass with a diameter of 133 mm retain the sound quality at the loudness peaks, although they can take a little position in the detail at low volumes, and silk dome tweeters have exactly the same sound which love silk.
We can advise the majority of buyers to install a complete fabric grill right away: this will somewhat muffle the upper frequencies, which, with open diffusers on flat EQ settings, are slightly more than necessary. The speakers are quite tolerant to the spatial arrangement, so that when placing you do not have to look for a compromise between the space in the room and the sound. As a result, we have a qualitatively assembled acoustics with a very, very interesting sound, which is capable of playing out sharp drops in volume well and without any musical “preferences” due to good linearity. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.7 / 10
Rating
Reviews
The best universal speakers for home - you can watch movies with sound quality no worse than in the cinema, you can listen to music. More precisely, even need to listen. |
Wharfedale Diamond 11.4
68 990
Well-assembled speakers attract the eye (especially in white), but we would advise you to carefully listen to them before you buy. The fact is that their character is clearly tangible: the speakers seem to come to life in difficult parts, while the solo instruments are somewhat flat, and compositions with an emphasis on male vocals (if this is not falsetto or extreme growling ) - not their strong point. Rather, they were calculated precisely for orchestral instrumental, in this case the sound of the speakers is the most interesting. They are assembled according to the usual scheme for floor systems - in the high “tower” of the case there are two woofers with a diameter of 150 mm, one mid-100 mm and an inch tweeter with a fabric diffuser. Both the woofers and midrange drivers made of Kevlar diffusers: yes, most likely, it was the choice of material (in combination with spongy rubber suspensions) and caused such a character to sound. There are no questions to the high-frequency part of the spectrum: everything is fine. By the way, the location of the speakers, by the way, is also very sensitive: if you hear obvious accents and gaps in the sound, do not rush to blame the manufacturer for curvature and lack of hearing, try playing the position and orientation of the acoustics first. But this has an obvious disadvantage - if you prefer to listen to music by mood in different places of the room, the sound in them will be felt brightly differently. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.6 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Test Wagner passed perfectly - powerful bottom, combined with not losing the detail of the upper right up to the very border of audibility. |
44 990
This three-lane system is quite capable of coping with its tasks without a subwoofer: two 200-millimeter speakers are responsible for the lower band, the middle is assigned to 127-millimeter, and the tweeter has a traditional diameter of 25 mm. In this case, the owner can connect the lanes separately, biamping mode is provided in the columns. For those who like to get the most out of the acoustics, we strongly recommend that - when connecting a speaker to a common line at high volume, there is a big risk of burning tweeters, some owners managed to do it even more than once without even thinking what was wrong here.
Immediately warn that these speakers will be the best choice for home theater rather than for meditating to your favorite audio tracks: the MF-HF frequency characteristics are not the most optimal here, which can be partially cured by biamping and tuning ... But is it better to take more perfect acoustics for music? ? Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.3 / 10
Rating
Reviews
The best speakers for home theater, and easily cope without a subwoofer. Crossovers on the advice of a friend refined to cut power on tweeters - I like powerful bass, and I don't want to burn high tweeters. |
Top bookshelf speakers
Tannoy Revolution XT 6
73 700
Tannoy is one of the oldest British acoustic manufacturers. More precisely, the Scottish: we will not infringe upon the national pride of the Scots, especially considering that not so long ago, in the two thousandth, the company's assets were seriously planned to be transferred from Cootbridge to Manchester - for this you can get a bagpipe on your forehead (even though already traditionally Chinese). So, if the legislation already allows you to drink spirits, pour, say, “Macallan” (forgive us for pops lovers to be measured by the number of single-malt tried) and turn on the music. The downstream port of the phase inverter, because of which the speakers have such a characteristic stand, reduces the sensitivity of the sound to the location of the acoustics relative to the listener, and the sound is answered by the branded coaxial speaker Omnimagnet Dual Concentric, which is also designed with a broad pattern. The speakers have an excellent, juicy sound with a perceptibly soft flow: although they will calmly digest a zabubenny death metal or, God forbid, some dubstep, the bluish southern blues, perhaps, would be ideal for them. Moreover, the speakers, despite the wide directivity pattern, manage to simultaneously superbly transmit the stereo scene Even with all the harmfulness of the nature of the author could not find where to find fault. Is that the price - but when good acoustics, and even "with the name", was cheap? Main advantages:
Minuses:
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10 / 10
Rating
Reviews
I did not expect such a sound from small speakers. It literally flows from the diffuser. |
27 990
Thanks to the support of the separate connection of the amplifier channels to the tweeter and midbass, these speakers will allow you to adjust the sound to your taste much more accurately than is possible in speakers with a non-switchable crossover. The connection of the speakers itself is elementary, it is enough to unscrew the nuts from the terminals and remove the strips connecting the terminals in pairs - and here you have separate inputs for connection. Each speaker has two speakers: an inch tweeter with a composite diffuser (silk + polymer) and a 5 1/4-inch midbass, again a composite (this time mineral fiber + polymer). The choice is not the most audiophile, but we are interested in the first sound score, aren't we? Strong, but fairly light midbass diffusers give out more than excellent bottoms for such compact dimensions, while not losing the richness of the middle, and during the transition to the top one does not feel any dips in the frequency response (we repeat, this is a bi-amping connection). The high-frequency range will cause displeasure only in comparison with tweeters, which themselves stand as a set of these speakers, and even then not on any music - for example, tweeters play electronics more interestingly purely silk. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.8 / 10
Rating
Reviews
I do not have much space, so I had to choose good compact wall speakers. But at the same time Polk Audio give out not just a gorgeous sound, they are also able to digest good power without distortion. |
13 440
KRK ROKIT 5 G3 is a bass-reflex monitor type loudspeaker that pays for the money invested in its acquisition by 100%. The sound power of the unit reaches 50 W, which is quite enough for a separate speaker. The body was created from MDF. The front panel is painted in black and yellow. From connectors - two balanced and one linear input. The main part of the internal space is occupied by a 127-mm subwoofer. Above is an RF emitter with a diameter of 25 mm. This set is capable of producing sound pressure at 106 dB. But most of all the column pleases with a not particularly high price tag. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.8 / 10
Rating
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12 490
These monitors have a more open sound when compared with cheaper acoustics. You will not hear the blockages in frequencies - for that alone you need to praise the creators of the BEHRINGER Truth B2030A. The speakers are capable of producing an impressive bass - you will literally feel it with your body. First of all, this acoustics was created for owners of small apartments. That is why the columns have relatively modest dimensions.
Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.7 / 10
Rating
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The best subwoofers for home
Wharfedale SW-15
42 590
For subwoofers, despite all sorts of tricks and modern technology, the diameter of the diffuser continues to be important. Well, as a true Yorkshire native, the SW-15 is conservative, using a fifteen-inch long-stroke speaker with a cellulose cone.Paired with a built-in 400-watt amplifier, it can really please with a sound that is legible and at the same time dense, assembled throughout the low-frequency band. Powerful dynamics - a powerful body: in terms of weight, the Wharfedale did not reach up to 30 kilograms. When listening, you hear exactly the work of the speaker, the case does not embellish the sound and certainly does not spoil it. The presence of the phase inverter is almost not felt, the subwoofer is perfect for instrumental music. Connection is possible to the selected subwoofer channel, and by summing the right and left of choice. Any circuit design problems, abundant and incomprehensible adjustments deprived of the subwoofer. One word - “Englishman” as it is. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.9 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Upscale sub from the "widely known in narrow circles" of the British firm - if you like a good sound, this is exactly what you need. |
29 900
Despite not the greatest power (100 W) in the characteristics, this active subwoofer is capable of much, and its built-in amplifier is perfectly balanced with the capabilities of the speaker, without distorting the sound on powerful peaks. Although the case has a traditional phase inverter performance, there is no characteristic hard taste in the sound: the subwoofer will play a wide range of musical parties and will not save when you turn on movies or gaming console.
Paper speaker with a special impregnation gives a natural sound, and in a very wide range - from the lower ear sensitivity limit to 200 Hz, so that he can feel the explosions in the next blockbuster, and bass solos, and synthetic cogging in a terrible mixture of triangle, sinus and saw (for acoustics, a similar sound, by the way, is in itself a very serious test). One of the best popular subwoofers, it’s a pity that in the past few years its price has almost doubled. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.8 / 10
Rating
Reviews
My acoustics do not really need a sub for music, but in the films of Victa Prime it adds a great sense of presence. The bass is great, with all the nuances of sound. |
49 900
Despite its compactness, this home subwoofer is powerful enough to serve as a weapon for Slaanesh's noisemakers. 170 watts of nominal power (peak 220) in combination with a 12-inch aluminum speaker is quite serious, and the speaker can provide good readability and detail of the sound while arguing confidently with paper ones. The subwoofer is quite versatile and will survive a sharp change in the preferences of the owner.
The only thing you can complain about is the dual-mode phase adjustment (0 or 180 degrees), but not smooth. You may have to do some experiments with the placement of the subwoofer before you can find the optimal one. Yes, and do not tell audiophiles that inside the switching power supply and class D amplifier. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.7 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Despite the name of the company, surrealism has nothing to do with it: I have never heard of aluminum speakers more alive and naturally sounding bottoms. |
39 490
The subwoofer is capable of producing deep and dynamic bass. The sound will easily pump the room, with an area of about 20 sq.m. At the same time, acoustics offer a variety of settings, including adjustment of the cutoff frequency. There is also an automatic on or off. Main advantages:
Minuses:
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9.5 / 10
Rating
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How to choose speakers?
Listening to the acoustics in the store is not the best solution: speakers that sound well in one room can noticeably lose in quality in another. Moreover, the amplifier in the store is unlikely to be the same as in your home.
So let's go, starting from the characteristics:
- Uniform frequency response (amplitude-frequency response), indicated by manufacturers or measured in tests of specialized publications, is an excellent indicator of the quality of acoustics. It is unlikely that you will like the sound of the speakers, which have some kind of sound at some frequencies, and some like something: although it would seem that this can be corrected with an equalizer, but in fact, no equalizer will allow you to perfectly adjust the sound, raising it along with obstruction and its neighboring frequencies in its lane.
- Number of lanes- in theory, the more “highly specialized” speakers, the better. But do not forget that the signal between them is distributed by crossovers, and their quality and tuning accuracy have a very serious impact on the final sound. Therefore, two or three bands - this is a reasonable optimum.
- Power- everything is simple: it must be more than the power of the amplifier, otherwise when you try to unscrew the volume for a full acquaintance with the wheezing speakers and burning windings is inevitable.
- Bee- and triamping - it is possible to connect two or three bands to separate outputs of the amplifier (or, in general, to different amplifiers). This is useful if you are not satisfied with the work of regular crossovers, or if the speakers are operated at high power - by “hanging” tweeters on a separate channel, you will save them from damage at volume peaks.
Have a good shopping!