Don Lindich’s Sound Advice Blog

This is a re-post from my old site, slightly updated. What I said then still applies today- read, enjoy and learn!

Some Thoughts on Very Small Speakers

Speaker systems using extremely small satellites with a subwoofer or “bass module” have become quite popular due to their unobtrusive nature, especially when there is a wife to satisfy. This is often referred to as WAF, or “Wife Acceptance Factor”. Tiny speakers have a very high WAF, big speakers often having a low WAF… depending on the individual, of course! Unfortunately, high WAF and high sound quality often don’t go together because tiny speakers have a lot of limitations. If you are looking for the best sound quality, you should build a system using floor standing speakers, bookshelf size speakers, or at least satellites that are a little larger than some of the extremely small cube shapes being sold today.

The bookshelf speaker on the left is very small, but its woofer is almost as big as the entire cube speaker to its right.

It all comes down to simple physics. In order to make sound, speakers have to move air. Very small speakers cannot move much air, and this limits the sounds they can reproduce. Typically these tiny speakers fall short in reproducing frequencies anywhere from 80hz to 200hz, which is a critical range for music as well as human voices. With some of these systems, the satellites cannot reproduce all of a deep voice, so the subwoofer reproduces the rest of the voice. This is very undesirable in a sound system, especially a home theater. That is what your center channel is for. Many of these tiny speakers do not have a separate tweeter, so treble reproduction suffers as well.

The Arnold Schwarzenegger/Darth Vader Subwoofer Test

To test a satellite-subwoofer system for yourself, take a DVD with a deep voice, such as an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie (“I’ll be back!”- The Terminator.) or perhaps Darth Vader once he is in his big black suit. Play the DVD through a system you are considering. With the volume low, listen closely at the subwoofer’s output.

If you can hear Arnold’s voice coming from the subwoofer, you know that the satellites or center may not be reproducing midrange frequencies critical to sound reproduction. If you compare such systems with bookshelf or floor standing speakers, you will find they sound quite thin in comparison to the larger speakers, especially with music.

The deepest human voices can dip down as low as 90hz. If your satellites go at least this low, you will have no problem reproducing a full, natural midrange. In general, satellites that reproduce at least 100 to 140hz will be OK. Some systems being sold today may not provide you with any frequency response data at all. If they are not willing to tell you anything about how their speakers perform, be wary! What is being hidden? Is the frequency response poor? (Yes, Bose, this means you…)