How Often Do Home Theater Speakers Need To Be Replaced (Guide)
Homelytainment earn commissions (at no additional cost to you) if you purchase products from retailers after clicking on a link from our site.
The speakers are the only thing in a home theater that gets the new update the slowest. The theory of evolution in the speakers is very slowly crawling toward change. That’s why there is a variety of opinions revolving around speakers’ upgrades. But when is the time to finally upgrade the speakers?
At A Glance: There are 2 rules of thumb for upgrading the speakers. First, if you are an audiophile and you want to test the newly released products by your favorite brand or you want to stick with the budget and keep the speakers with you for at least 5 years.
Keep reading because I have conducted a survey and have asked questions from home theater owners that will help you a lot in the upgrade.
How Often Do You Guys Replace Your Speakers? (FB Group Poll)
| Questions | Poll Stats |
|---|---|
| As soon as a new model is on the market | 5.83% |
| After 6 Months. I love to hear and experience new speakers | 10.83% |
| After 1 year | 12.5% |
| After 2 years | 16.67% |
| After 5 years | 29.17% |
| Once per decade. I am very faithful with my surround sound | 8.33% |
| When it completely stops working | 16.67% |
In the above table, I have the data from the poll that I conducted in one of the home theater groups on Facebook.
But As a general rule of thumb, you can follow my experience as well.
- I am a huge fan of Klipsch Center channel speakers. I love their center speakers. No matter which brand speakers I used in other positions of the layout the center must be by Klipsch.
That’s why I always try to have my hands on their newly released center channel speaker. If that release is let’s suppose after six months of my last upgrade. I will upgrade the center speaker again and will get my hands on the new one. Sometimes this practice can give me a worse speaker than the previous one but it is part of the game.
- You can upgrade whenever you feel any problems with your existing system. Like my BIC subwoofer was going strong for 7 months and the experience was just great. I loved it for that long. But after 7 months there was a significant amount of port noise and I replaced it with a new sub with no port noise.
- You can go for the upgrade when there are newly featured speakers for any position in the layout. Like, (1) Atmos speaker that can spray the sound from the ground and you don’t need to drill holes in the ceiling to install it. (2) You have seen dipole speakers for your rear and you want to have those in the rear and many more things.
- But if you want to stick to your budget then you can use your speakers for up to 5 years and 10 years depending on your budget. You can use them for 10 years without any problem because speakers get the upgrade the slowest unless you encounter any serious problems with it.
Keep reading because there are a few metrics to carry out before doing the upgrade.
When To Finally Push The Green Button To Upgrade Your Speakers?
95% of the time the upgrade is just due to the dull sound experience that speakers are giving. When you click on the links these steps will take you to the corresponding guides of mine.
That’s why you must have these metrics to carry out before pushing that green circle button.
- Go ahead and calibrate the sound of each speaker. Calibrate it according to the seating area of your theater room. Did you start getting the sound you acquired these speakers for? If not then go ahead and complete the second step.
- Soundproof your home theater. Make sure you are not getting outside noise inside and the inside sound outside of the theater room.
- Acoustically treat the theater room. Kill that sound reverberation in the home theater.
- Adjust the right crossover settings for each speaker in the home theater.
- Rearrange each speaker in the home theater. Follow my speaker’s angle and placing guide to ensure the best possible placement.
- Try to replace the connectivity speaker wires with the AV receiver.
- Are you getting the sound you are looking for? If not then it is time for the upgrade.
If you are concerned about the speaker’s quality over time then keep reading.
Do speakers wear out over time?
In-Short: Speakers age over time like other things on this planet. The cone, the box, the tweeter, and every other part of the speakers do degrade over time and it drastically affects the sound quality. This wear-out time ranges from 2-5 years. Many reputable brand speakers can even last for 10 years.
In-Depth: As I am a huge movie buff and home theater, enthusiast. I usually prefer to change my entire home theater sound after every 2 years.
I do this because I want to have the best in the market products and to avoid possibly hitting the wear-out duration.
If you want to keep the speakers for 7+ years due to any of your reasons then keep reading.
How can I make my speakers last longer?
You have to take care of it like a baby.
- Always supply it with the power they are rated. Never supply less or higher power than that. It will make the speakers clip and you will damage them sooner.
- Always keep it in a well-ventilated area and away from electronics and naked wires.
- Place it 3-4ft away from the wall.
- Always clean the dust off from it and keep it away from the dust.
- Don’t drive it at full volume. Don’t crank it up more than 80% of the volume.
- Don’t push over the top bass to the sub.
- Keep it in a place that is away from pets and kids.
- Always use good condition wires for it.
- Place a speaker in the position for which it is made. The rear goes in the rear and the outdoors go outdoors.
Did you get something out of this speaker’s guide? Hold On We Have Something Exciting To Share.
FAQs
How long should a surround sound system last?
It should last for 6 years and after that, if you experience any boominess in bass or dullness in sound then you should have to replace the system.
You should not replace the system to acquire a new updated one. Because speakers don’t get many updates. But you should replace them because they might wear out within six-year or some of their parts at least.
How long does a home theater system last?
The whole home theater system can last up to 10 years. My friend had an old AV receiver that he gave to his father. The receiver already was 10 years old and it is still going strong in his father’s man cave.
The question is not how much it lasts but for how many years it keeps up to date. Because now RCA is the talk of the paste and HDMI has taken the world.
Do speakers get better with age?
There is a break in time for each speaker. This break-in time ranges from 80 hours to 100 hours. After this time the speakers will sound the best and will throw a sound for which they are made.
But when this break-in time is past. The speakers will go bad with each passage of time. Many internal parts will degrade day by day with usage.
Do speakers go bad if not used?
Speakers will never get worse if not used. You just have to keep it protected from dust, humidity, and kids and pets. That’s it. After placing it in good care then they will never go bad if not used.
Helpful Resources For The FAQs To Read More
- Read more about it on Klipsch blog. (Resource for the third answer)
