Loudspeakers come in all shapes and sizes. They’re also made for different bank account sizes, too.

There are floorstanders, in-walls, in-ceilings, on-walls, bookshelf speakers, all-in-one soundbars, subwoofers and entire speaker systems—hundreds of speaker manufacturers are out there—that we sifted through to choose our favorites. We know that not everyone can afford the limited release KEF Muon six-figure tower pairs, so we tried to cover all budget types as well.

The lineup of floorstanding tower speakers we went with is an impressive list of brands that produced some jaw-dropping speakers in both sound and appearance. The aforementioned KEFs are there, as well as biggies from BG Radia, Bowers & Wilkins, Meridian, RBH Sound and Vienna Acoustics.

If you want sound heard and not seen (or as unobtrusively as possible), an assortment of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers earned our nod from Atlantic Technology, Klipsch, Paradigm, Snell, and Velodyne. Similarly, outdoor models from Monitor Audio and Terra Loudspeakers manage to stay tucked away while serving up great sound.

Offerings from Artcoustic and Sonus faber remind us that speakers can truly have an artistic and attractive design that enhances your room decor—and even a subwoofer like the SubRosa from Sunfire shows that you can truly think outside of the box when it comes to the aesthetics of sound. “Sound projectors” we recognized from Mitsubishi and Yamaha provide plenty of punch while complementing, or being incorporated into, your flat-panel TV—especially if you’re already trying to save space by mounting that flat-panel to a wall.

The bottom line is that you’ll get great audio from any of these models, no matter how much or little you want to spend. The fun thing about new speakers is re-listening to your CD collection for a whole new take, or re-watching a movie and hearing sounds you never caught before. Your ears will thank you.

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See also:
- Products of the Year 2008
- Products of the Year 2007
- Products of the Year 2006