Listening in Mono

I’d suggest you do the bulk of your primary evaluations of different speakers in mono, listening to a single speaker. Don’t sum your test CD to mono, but use just the left channel. This will head off any problems that might arise from mono incompatibilities in the recording.

Why mono? Because it is MUCH easier to hear the deficiencies of a speaker in mono. Stereo tends to mask such deficiencies, so that bad speakers sound better, while good speakers sound equally good. I know stereo is more fun to listen to, and I know you’ll want to know how your speakers “image.” We’ll get to stereo later. Right now, just trust me, mono will greatly simplify your task.

Listening at the Same Level

It’s a truism that “louder is better.” To keep the playing field level, you’ve got to make sure the speakers are AT the same level. Bring along an SPL meter and use the pink noise track to adjust so that all of the speakers you are auditioning are within 1 dB at your listening position. You don’t want to drop an extra $1200 for a speaker just because its level is misadjusted by 3 dB and so you think it sounds totally awesome when in fact it doesn’t. Enough said.