The Complete Handbook of Speaker Accessories

Chapter 1: Understanding Speaker Accessories

The complete speaker system is rarely just a loudspeaker connected to an amplifier. Between the box that produces sound and the environment it sits in, there is a physical and electrical infrastructure that determines whether the system sounds good, whether it stays put, and whether it survives the night, the tour, or the season of weather. That infrastructure is the domain of speaker accessories.

Speaker accessories include everything that is not the loudspeaker cabinet itself: the stands and poles that hold it up in the air, the brackets and hardware that hang it from a wall or ceiling, the protective cases that absorb the shock of transit, the cables and connectors that carry signal and power to it, and the components that keep a speaker from rattling, slipping, overheating, or being stolen. It sounds like a broad list. It is. But in practice, the category is defined by the fact that each accessory exists to solve one specific mechanical, electrical, or environmental problem around the loudspeaker. When the accessory is chosen incorrectly, the failure mode is predictable: a pole is too small and sags. A cable is too long and under-gauged, and the system runs out of headroom at a solo level. A mount is rated too low and the speaker lands on someone.

Consider the most common speaker accessory in the world: the simple pole that mounts on top of a subwoofer to support a satellite speaker. This is a deceptively simple mechanical joint.