Speakers?

As an aspiring live sound engineer there are a lot of things that you have been learning in order to understand your craft better, am I right? Well, other than microphones, the next most important detail to getting the perfect mix is having and choosing the right speakers! There are many factors that come into play when choosing the right speakers; however, understanding what a speaker entails of is the first step to making the right decision!

How do speakers work exactly?

The basic way a speaker works is that a electromagnet turns electrical signals (from a microphone or cd player) into different strengths of movements (or frequency) which we perceive as sound coming from a speaker. The process starts off at a coil that is connected to a cone, which vibrates together causing a sound to be created. This sound is then amplified by the diaphragm and in turn heard by us as music or vocals. I have included a diagram of how a speaker is made below so that you will be able to understand it a little better.

Types of Speakers?

The two main types of speakers that live sound engineers use today are active and passive. The main difference between the two is that a passive speaker needs to have an amplifier in order to work and an active speaker has a built in amp inside the actual speaker housing. Active speakers are appealing to many bands and live sound engineers simply because they are easy to set up and have an amplifier they have built in them is perfectly matched to the speaker that it is powering. Where as with a passive speaker you have to match the right amplifier to the right speaker, which can a daunting task for some. Despite active speakers using less space and being super convenient to set up, if anything goes wrong you have lost an entire speaker. Passive speakers are more flexible in regards to failures simply because you can easily replace the speaker or amp itself which proves very beneficial during a live concert.

How to Choose?

In reality it is really hard to choose what speaker will be right for you and the applications you will come across down the road. When I bought my first sound system back in 2006 it was really scary to be throwing around my hard earned money; however, it was something that I loved so I jumped right in. After thinking about it a while, I wanted to have the ability and flexibility to run sound for shows that had 1000 people to acoustic shows in a small coffee shop. With that being said, I ended up getting a combination of large and small passive speakers with separate amplifiers. This was the right choice for me because the amplifiers were meant for ten of those speakers I had just bought one of. I did that so I would have the ability to build onto my system without having to buy all new amplifiers. Today I have a system that has the power to blow the face off of 1000 people and maybe even more than that!. According to Sounds Live, active speakers are becoming more popular because they are an easy solution, involve fewer cables, are easy to upgrade, and cost substantially less than passive speakers. With that being said your budget is the next thing that you must factor into your decision.

It is very important that you think about where you want to be with your system in the future. Will you be a person who has speakers in his garage? A person with a coffee shop sound system? Or will you want to have the ability to someday have built a system that will impress a thousand people?  Take your time to think and ask yourself these questions as I hope it will help you decide which speaker is the right one for you.