While all the components in your home theater system work together to deliver a signal to your speakers, it’s your speakers that actually deliver the sound to your ears—which makes the speakers perhaps the most important component of your system.
All speaker enclosures contain one or more drivers. Small drivers, called tweeters, reproduce high frequencies (2,000Hz or higher); large drivers, called woofers, reproduce low frequencies (2,000Hz or below). Most speaker enclosures include at least two of these speaker drivers, although some enclosures include a third speaker, called a midrange driver, to better reproduce the frequencies where the tweeter and woofer meet. The circuitry used to split the signals between different drivers is called a crossover.
Speaker systems come in all shapes and sizes. The three primary types of speaker enclosures are
Floor-standing speakers. —These are speakers that are big enough to stand on the floor (either on their own or with the help of speaker stands). Floor-standing speakers typically are larger than other types of speakers; reproduce a wider range of frequencies (including deep bass); and are quite efficient, producing more volume per watt.This is the preferred design for listening to music.
Bookshelf speakers. —These are speakers that are small enough to fit on a typical bookshelf. Because of their reduced size, bookshelf speakers feature small woofers or, in some instances, no woofer at all. To reproduce the full range of frequencies, then, bookshelf speakers are typically supplemented by a separate subwoofer.
Satellite speakers. —These are very small speakers, typically containing a single tiny driver.Satellite speakers are small enough that they can be mounted or placed just about anywhere; full frequency response is accomplished by adding a separate subwoofer to the system.
In addition to these main speaker types, a subwoofer is often used to reproduce very low bass frequencies (below 200Hz). This is a speaker with its own built-in amplifier and a very large (8” or larger)driver. Today, subwoofers are standard in surround-sound systems—even those that use full-range floor-standing speakers.
