Reflecting speakers are made in many different ways, with each brand claiming superior technology.

Bi-Polar/Di-Polar
These speakers use the same set of drivers on the front and back of the speaker cabinet. The only difference between the two is whether their drivers are in-phase or out-of-phase.

Bi-Polar speakers radiate sound in-phase, meaning the drivers push in and out at the same time. The bi-polar design pushes out more bass and is the design used for main speakers.

Di-Polar speakers radiate sound out-of-phase, meaning the drivers push in and out opposite of each other. While the front driver pushes out, the rear driver pulls in. This technique produces a more diffuse sound and is used for surround speakers.

Electrostatics
Using thin, tall panels of plastic for drivers these speakers produce a truly clear sound that resonates a full 360 degrees around the driver. Electrostatics are among the best sounding speakers in the industry, but come with a heavy price tag. This type of design is very demanding on amplifiers requiring immense power. Amps that are capable of playing electrostatics are also generally very expensive.

There is a point where the sound quality you get is not worth how much you have pay for it. There are other reflective speaker designs that offer sound close to electrostatics while using normal amplification. Any speaker that can come close to producing the quality of electrostatic speakers is one that should definitely make you're list of possible purchases.

Give electrostatics a long listen... so you'll have a guide to judge all other speakers by.

Direct Reflecting
Patented by Bose, this design uses multiple speaker drivers with some facing the listener and others facing other directions. Some designs even offer adjustable speaker drivers so that you can tweak the amount of direct versus indirect sound you desire.

Bose has gotten a bad rap among the audio enthusiast industry as not sounding good. The fact is that Bose speakers produce damn great sound, but some of their speakers are very dependent on the types of components used to run the speakers.

Some of their satellite/sub combo called "Accoustimass" do not come with a powered sub, making the amount of bass you hear dependent on the quality of the amp you use.

The 901 Series VI speaker is highly coveted by many editors. The 901s offer sound quality very close if not better than electrostatic speakers. The only major drawback of the 901s is that they require a dedicated equalizer for each pair. This makes it difficult to setup with surround systems unless your using a separate amp, or if your receiver has pre-outs and ins for your main channels.

Drivers
Speaker cones come in many different shapes and materials. Use of exotic material mixtures to make drivers is common among high-end speaker manufactures, but there are some qualities that you should look for that pertain to all.

Tweeters
These are among the most varying types of drivers out there. The best sounding version of the tweeter is the dome tweeter.

Using a dome to control the dispersion of sound from the tweeter offers a smoother, more consistent sound across the listening environment. Most tweeters made today are liquid cooled which allows them to play loud and reliably fro extended periods. Most domes are made using some type of metal or fabric.

A fabric dome will sound softer and a metal dome brighter. The surround of the tweeter greatly effects the dispersion pattern as well, and there are many variants. In the end what you're looking for in a tweeter is a quality driver that has a nice sound. Any non-dome tweeter should be looked upon with skepticism.

Horn Drivers
Klipsh speakers offer horn enclosed tweeters that make for an extremely efficient design as far as energy consumption is concerned. Klipsh speakers played a big role back in the 50s and 60s bringing quality speakers to the home.

Back then amplifiers had very little power compared to today's standards, and speakers needed to help with the amplification of sound in any way possible. Enter the horn driver.

The horn driver is what made a Klipsh speaker able to play at louder volume levels with less power. The horn enclosure is wrapped around the tweeter in order to amplify the sound that the tweeter emits. As more amplification became available, the reason for horn driven speakers was no longer there. Non-horn enclosed speakers became a reality, and played at the same sound levels with a softer, less harsh sound than horns usually emit.

Klipsh has accomplished a lot in the 90s to take the harshness out of their horn designed speakers and are really worth listening to and their horn designs still offer a higher efficiency.

Due to their efficiency, horn driven speakers will play louder with less power than standard cone driven speakers. To match speakers together in your system you should either use all horn speakers or none at all.

Midranges
These drivers create most of the sound you will actually hear by producing all but the very high or very low sounds. Good midranges tend to come in sizes ranging from 3 to 6 inches.

More and more speaker makers are using a midrange/woofer along with a dedicated woofer or multiple woofers to produce better upper bass sound. Many great speakers are made that use both midrange or mid/woof designs.

You'll want to look for a high quality driver that uses rubber and not foam for the cone surrounds. Foam can deteriorate over time, which shortens the life of your speakers. You'll also want non-paper material for the cone structure, as paper is less durable and not as rigid as plastics and metals. As always, there are exceptions to the rule, but these are good guidelines to start with when auditioning speakers.

Woofers
The woofer is where you'll find many different configurations. The basic assumptions with woofers are that they need to be able to handle all your bass, but this is simply not true. All you need the woofer to do is handle the upper bass frequencies that a powered subwoofer does not. The subwoofer takes charge of the most demanding low frequencies freeing your woofers from the burden. You should look for the same qualities as that of the midrange. Non-foam surrounds and a rigid cone material will make for a long lasting driver.

Sound qualities you want to look for in a woofer are the ability to play relatively low while sounding smooth and unstressed. You'll want to ward away from speakers with a muddy sound as these can dirty the overall sound your system produces. The bass should have great presence and a clear refinement that enables you to hear the subtle details of the low frequencies.

Many tower speakers can produce enough bass that you may think you don't need a sub. These are the speakers worth taking looking at. If the speakers can handle serious low frequencies, you won't have to worry about their drivers stressing to handle the upper bass frequencies.

To Sub or Not to Sub
You can purchase speakers with built-in powered subwoofer, but you may want to stray away from these designs for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that you can't optimally place your speakers for both highs and lows. The low frequencies that subwoofers produce sound better and louder closer to a wall while the high frequencies of the other drivers produce a better sound-stage placed farther out into the room. Putting a subwoofer out in the middle of the room requires the sub to be set at higher volume level to attain the same sound a sub placed close to a wall would produce.

The second reason is that having all your eggs in one basket isn't a good idea. If one part of the speaker malfunctions in some way, or you simply want new speakers, you'll be forced to buy another expensive set of speakers that come with built-in subs, or a separate sub to go with your new speakers. It simply isn't cost effective.

Built-in subs cause speaker placement issues and lack of flexibility. Getting a dedicated powered subwoofer with a good set of speakers is your best bet.

The Enclosure
The enclosure of a speaker plays as big a role on the sound your speakers produce as the drivers do. The goal of an enclosure is to be as solid as possible, not interfere with the sound of the high frequency drivers, and use the cabinet's volume to increase the bass produced by the woofers. The size of the enclosure greatly increases the amount of bass that the woofers emit. Bad enclosures can make your speakers sound boxy and can affect the imaging qualities tremendously.

The inside of the box should have plenty of internal damping (the cotton-like fuzzy stuff) to absorb internal sound waves that the high frequency drivers produce. The absorbent material is invisible to low-frequency sound waves allowing the woofer to use the entire volume of the enclosure to produce more bass.

There should also be lots of internal bracing, which makes the enclosure extremely solid. The more solid the enclosure the more likely the enclosure will not interfere with the sound. A good test to measure the quality of the enclosure is to knock on the side and top of the speaker enclosure. The sound should be the equivalent of knocking on solid piece of wood or a rock. If knocking on the enclosure gives off a hollow sound the enclosure design is really second rate and you should look at different speakers.

Connections
Speaker connections help the power from the amplifier flow freely into the speaker. Speakers with high quality binding posts offer the most secure connections and a larger metal connection area for your speaker wire to rest against.

Spring clips offer a second rate solution with very little connection area for the speaker cable to transfer the signal. They can greatly affect the sound quality of your speakers by blocking the flow of electrical power from the amp.

Binding posts, combined with quality speaker cables, will eliminate any possibility of your speaker's connection degrading your sound. (See the "Cables" section for more info on connections.)

What You'll Find Out There
Amazingly, a well-designed tower using mid/woofs can produce the same amount of bass produced by traditional 3-way designs that use a large dedicated woofer. You'll find a lot more 2-2.5 way speakers using smaller drivers to drive the bass.

With the popularity of powered subwoofers you'll see less and less of the traditional large woofers in speaker designs. Small woofer designs slim down the cabinet size making the speaker enclosure sleeker, less garish to look at, and easier to place.

Reflective speakers come in all different shapes and sizes. You should audition as many as you can and also compare them against direct radiating speaker designs to find out which type of sound you like best.

Overall Speaker Performance
Great speakers will make a world of difference on the impact your home theater makes. You'll want speakers that you don't hear at all. Instead, you want to be enveloped in a sound field that seems to defy the laws of physics by going beyond the boundaries of the speakers.

While watching a movie in a dim room you should only hear the sounds around you and not be able to pinpoint the exact location of the speakers themselves. Great home theater speakers pull you in with their dazzling sound so much that you'll stop listening to the speakers and become entranced in the movie itself.

In short... you will never hear great speakers.