If you’re going to spring for speakers to enhance your music or gaming experience, you’ll want to buy the best speakers that you can afford. This makes buying the right speakers—with regard to measurable sound quality, but also in terms of personal preference—absolutely crucial. Sinking a lot of money into a sound system, only to get home and find out that it isn’t at all what you were looking for, is an experience that no-one would appreciated.

Fortunately, there are ways in which you can narrow down the list of options in advance. At a basic level, it comes down to knowing what you’re looking for, and where you’re going to find it, which we’ve gone on to describe in detail below.

Speaker Sound Quality

There are several crucial factors that play into the overall sound quality of your speaker system.

Material Composition

What is your speaker’s cone material? Generally speaking, there are two different types. Lightweight materials are used to create cones which move quickly, but are more likely to “flex” or otherwise deform when exposed to certain frequencies. Aluminum, lightweight plastics, and even paper might be used in this capacity. A cone that can be driven more quickly produces better quality sound, but flexing results in sound distortion, so it’s a trade-off.

By comparison, heavier materials do not flex, but lack the higher-quality low-frequency sound produced by lightweight cones. Most of the heavier materials used to make speaker cones are ceramic composites. There are also intermediary materials, such as polypropylene, which might be called a trade-off between the two extremes. These deliver good broad-range performance while being reasonably resilient.

Speaker Design

There are three major factors involved in speaker design, aside from the material composition of your speakers.

Your speakers need to have stable, well-mounted cones. If they aren’t stable in their housing, then they will vibrate unevenly, instead of simply moving as desired. This will result in additional distortion, regardless of the material involved in their composition. The casing also needs to be narrow enough to project sound effectively. If it’s too wide, the sound that emerges from the speakers will echo around inside of it before emerging. This also produces distortion.

Your speaker’s cones are moved to produce sound by devices known as drivers. A cone may have more than one driver, designed to move it to produce different frequency ranges. Another device, the crossover circuit, controls the drivers. It directs higher frequencies to a tweeter, and lower frequencies to a woofer; a good crossover circuit is essential, especially for mid-range sound where differences are more subtle.

How to Choose?

Ultimately, speaker choice will come down to a certain amount of personal preference. A good piece of general advice is to spend more money for better quality sound; you’ll also want to focus on cone material. Pick a material the supports the range of sounds you’re going to focus on; fans of classical music, classic rock, hard rock, and video games will all have different needs.

Many manufacturers understand what goes into picking the right speaker. These companies want your business long-term, so they’ve adapted to service the needs of their niche. Mid-range to expensive speakers often offer limited trial or audition periods, during which the speakers may be returned for a full refund, no questions asked. Look for speakers produced by a manufacturer with this kind of a guarantee available; they’re more likely to produce a high-quality product.