Like any smart home technology, speakers have evolved tremendously over the years. From a nondescript box connected to a surround sound receiver to a stylish, streaming, all digital device, home speakers have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.
The most profound advancements have happened just over the past few years, driven mainly by the Internet and its huge repository of music, available with a mere touch of a finger to a smartphone. Easy access to songs from around the world has triggered a rebirth in music listening. Initially, headphones served as the main method of hearing music streamed from online music services. Soon, however, speaker manufacturers began to design affordable wireless speakers that connect with music on your mobile phone through Bluetooth and other stream-friendly technologies.
So what’s next for home loudspeakers? What are some of the most recent trends shaping the speaker performance and design? We asked experts at KEF, Meridian, and Leon Speakers for their insights. Here are a few of the trendsetting features important to consider when shopping for speakers today.
Customization Craving a cherry red speaker for your living room? No problem. Envisioning cobalt blue bookshelf models for the kitchen? Completely doable. Today, customization is king in speaker designs, with a number of manufacturers offering services that let you pick and choose your own colors, finishes, stains, whatever. Meridian, for example, offers Meridian Select finishes. You can match the speakers to a specific Pantone sample or the hue of a sofa pillow. This tailoring usually comes with a slight upcharge, but as Noah Kaplan of Leon Speakers puts it, “Sound and music are a reflection of your personality; the design of your speakers should reflect that personality too.”
Wireless Being able to install a speaker without running speaker wire will never go out of style. It’s just too darn easy and convenient. And with so much content available to stream, wireless speakers are still trending hard. However …
High-Res Quality … with more and more steaming services offering high-res audio, it’s important that the quality of the speaker is on par with the quality of the audio. Manufacturers have gone back to the drawing board to re-engineer their wireless speakers to reproduce high-res music with precision. It’s a killer combination of speaker design: Wireless and High Performance
MQA Short for Master Quality Authenticated, MQA is the pinnacle of high performance. This advanced streaming technology replicates music at studio-quality level. “It’s a revolutionary way of accessing and hearing hi-res audio,” says Ryan Donaher, vice president of Meridian America. MQA captures all the sonic nuances of the music as if you are hearing it being played in a studio and folds it into a file that’s as small enough to easily stream without losing any of the quality of the original recording. “The creation of high-res audio streaming through MQA is driving the speaker performance conversation,” Donaher continues. “Now that consumers have access to better quality content, they need better performing equipment like freestanding and powered speakers.”
Free-standing If you want a speaker to perform its best, don’t put it in the wall or ceiling. It’s been the golden rule of home audio since the dawn of home loudspeakers. Although the audio quality of built-in speakers has improved vastly, bookshelf and tower style speakers are trending, and looking better than ever. “Large, old-fashioned 70s style speakers are in,” Kaplan says.
Powered When a manufacturer calls its speaker “powered” or “active,” it means that all the necessary amplification is built into the speaker. This reduces any degradation of the music signal that typically happens as the audio travels via wiring from an external amp to a speaker. The result is higher-quality music playback … as well as more versatility in the installation of the speaker. Minus the physical connection to separate components, what you get is a wireless speaker that can be easily installed anywhere in your home. Manufacturers like KEF are taking active speakers to another level by also building streaming technology. The result: A speaker that’s wireless, high-performance, and able to stream. “It’s like having a complete, full-featured audio system inside a single speaker,” says Dipin Sehdev, KEF brand relations, of the company’s LS50 Wireless speaker.
Eclectic It’s an interesting time in home audio. Old and new come together with people pulling out their vinyl and to spin on turntables, while also streaming tunes from the Internet. Vintage meets modern—the best of both worlds.
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Lisa, very helpful summary! I’ve been out of the audio business for some time and this helps me figure out “what all the kids are talking about” these days. Thanks.
Do you guys anticipate active and wired speakers becoming on par with traditional passive speakers? I feel like a lot of people are still intimidated with the idea of needing a receiver and having to run wire to it, even though it’s actually fairly easy to do with a basic residential set up.
I think about this with outdoor/all-weather speakers in particular – I haven’t honestly seen an active/powered product that’s anywhere close to some of the top choices in terms of specs. But I think a lot more people would buy them if all they had to do was plug them in a a pair them directly with a computer, phone, or some other easy enough source component that most people already have. Most people get the heebie-jeebies at the thought of having to run wire through walls, underground, etc.
Wired speakers will probably always sound better than wireless speakers, due to the finicky nature of wireless transmission technologies. It all boils down to your home’s wireless network. The stronger and more robust that is, the better streaming audio will sound.