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44 Freestanding Loudspeaker Designs
Today's designs are more room friendly and better sounding than their predecessors.
Back in the day it was vinyl. Then it evolved to CD and analog surround sound. Today we live in a world with digital surround sound, downloadable music, Apple iPods and multizone/multisource audio.
The market for audio, in particular loudspeakers, is clearly growing. Fueling this growth is an increasingly diverse marketplace that can no longer be stereotyped as the male audiophile. This changing dynamic has fueled a new class of freestanding speaker design, one that is seductive and sleek with an eye toward the female buyer.
Indeeed, women have become as powerful -- if not more powerful -- in today's economy than men. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has found that women are involved in 89 percent of all electronics purchasing decisions, and 84 percent say new technologies can improve their lives, according to research from 2004.
Reinforcing the CEA's findings is research conducted in 2005 by the public relations firm Ketchum, Inc., to help support its "Women 25 to 54" marketing initiatives.
Ketchum found that females in that age group "control the bulk of the $3.3 trillion in consumer spending that women in the U.S. influence today." According to Kelley Skoloda, director of Ketchum's Global Brand Marketing Practice and architect of the agency's Women 25 to 54 communications program, "Women 25 to 54 in the U.S. control 80 percent of the household buying, more than 50 percent of the wealth, and make 62 percent of all car purchases."
The take away from all this for installers is simple: Regardless of the client, audio is an important part of homeowners' lives, and installers have the ability to fulfill their dreams of multiroom audio, home theater and traditional stereo audio. To help integrators sort out some of the latest bookshelf and floorstanding speaker designs, CE Pro has compiled a roundup from 44 key manufacturers.
View the 44 Freestanding Loudspeaker designs.
The market for audio, in particular loudspeakers, is clearly growing. Fueling this growth is an increasingly diverse marketplace that can no longer be stereotyped as the male audiophile. This changing dynamic has fueled a new class of freestanding speaker design, one that is seductive and sleek with an eye toward the female buyer.
Indeeed, women have become as powerful -- if not more powerful -- in today's economy than men. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has found that women are involved in 89 percent of all electronics purchasing decisions, and 84 percent say new technologies can improve their lives, according to research from 2004.
Reinforcing the CEA's findings is research conducted in 2005 by the public relations firm Ketchum, Inc., to help support its "Women 25 to 54" marketing initiatives.
Ketchum found that females in that age group "control the bulk of the $3.3 trillion in consumer spending that women in the U.S. influence today." According to Kelley Skoloda, director of Ketchum's Global Brand Marketing Practice and architect of the agency's Women 25 to 54 communications program, "Women 25 to 54 in the U.S. control 80 percent of the household buying, more than 50 percent of the wealth, and make 62 percent of all car purchases."
The take away from all this for installers is simple: Regardless of the client, audio is an important part of homeowners' lives, and installers have the ability to fulfill their dreams of multiroom audio, home theater and traditional stereo audio. To help integrators sort out some of the latest bookshelf and floorstanding speaker designs, CE Pro has compiled a roundup from 44 key manufacturers.
View the 44 Freestanding Loudspeaker designs.
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About the Author
Robert Archer, Senior Editor, CE Pro
Bob is an audio enthusiast who has written about consumer electronics for various publications within Massachusetts before joining the staff of CE Pro in 2000. Bob is THX Level I certified, and he's also taken classes from the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) and Home Acoustics Alliance (HAA). In addition, he's studied guitar and music theory at Sarrin Music Studios in Wakefield, Mass.
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