If you are in the market to pump up the volume on your music, movies, or games with a kick-ass home theater system, floorstanding speakers are a must for your plan. Sometimes referred to as tower speakers, floorstanding speakers are the best front speaker option for numerous reasons.

The choices may seem overwhelming at first. Arming yourself with knowledge beforehand can save a lot of time and headaches, and prevent you from winding up with a set of speakers that don’t suit your needs or are simply too small (or too big) for your space.

WHAT'S INSIDE A FLOORSTANDING SPEAKER?

Let’s start with what makes up the guts of a high-quality floorstanding speaker. First, they are the largest type of standard speakers generally found in your home. Floorstanding speakers also contain several drivers, which produce sound through vibration, to allow for a wide soundstage. How many and what type of drivers vary from model to model.

The human ear can perceive sounds ranging from 20 to 20,000 Hz. A given driver’s size depends partly on what its range is. Higher ranges have shorter soundwaves, so their drivers can be smaller. Conversely, lower frequencies have longer soundwaves, requiring larger drivers. The different types of drivers are:

Tweeters: These small drivers, named for the high pitch sounds birds make, are usually found at the top of the speaker, and generally emit sounds at high frequencies ranging from 2,000 to 30,000 Hz. Klipsch products are outfitted with horn, cone, or dome-shaped tweeters.

Midrange Drivers: These handle sounds ranging from 500 to 2,000 Hz. This is the range that instruments and the human voice fall within, which means having a satisfactory midrange driver is crucial. Like tweeters, they can be made of different materials, which will affect sound quality. Some highly engineered horn tweeters can also serve as midrange drivers, since a horn tweeter actually resonates in that frequency range (around 1000-2000Hz) which adds acoustic energy into the sound of the speaker, making it easier to match the tweeter to the woofer since the 1000-2000Hz range has a little more energy.

Woofers: Named for the low-pitch noises dogs make, these drivers produce lower frequency sounds, ranging from 40 to 1,000 Hz or higher. Woofers are known for having a high-quality bass response. The superior bass performance of woofers in tower speakers is one reason they are often chosen over smaller, bookshelf speakers.

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON FLOORSTANDING SPEAKER SPECS?

In addition to listening to a prospective set of speakers before buying, it’s important to look at any given speaker’s specifications. Although specifications can do little to define the quality of a given speaker’s sound, every model is required to provide a set of specs to the consumer, and it is important to understand what they mean and how they are derived to make an informed decision.

Some key specifications to make note of are:

Frequency response - Measured in Hertz (Hz), this is the frequency range that the speaker is able to produce.

Impedance - Measured in ohms, impedance measures current resistance impacting what load the speaker can handle coming from the amplifier. The actual amount of current is usually in a state of constant flux, but speakers are usually given a single nominal rating for ease of comparison. Common impedance values are 4, 8, and 16 ohms. It’s important to match the speaker’s impedance to that of your amp; mismatches can result in sound problems or damage to your equipment.

Sensitivity - Measures how efficiently the speaker converts power into sound. It’s measured in decibels (dB) and is usually measured by loading the drivers with 1 watt of power and measuring how loud the sound is that is produced. The lower the rating, the less efficient, and just a few decibels difference can have a big impact. For every three decibels in a sensitivity rating, you cut the amount of power required in half.