bookshelf or floorstander

Good to hear. Thanks for the responses.

Ya, I heard that about 30% of what we hear coming from a typical speaker is from cabinet resonance... which would make sense that this would give bookshelf speakers a clear advantage just based on the simple principle that the sound waves have less room and surface are to bounce around and collide with eachother on.

Get floor standers...youll always be wondering if...if only i would of got floor standers.(imho)did the same thing.

I'm going through the same process right now (see my threads on the subject of which speakers to try), and it seems that placing a high emphasis on soundstage is channeling the recommendations in favor of nearfield monitors. Right now I have floorstanders (Linn Ninkas) and they're plenty agile without any noticeable box resonance, but they don't through quite as convincing a stage as I'd like.

This having been said, the best soundstage I ever heard in my whole life was from a pair of Hales Signature IIs, which might also be the largest (and most expensive) speakers I've ever personally auditioned. So I'm not sure that the hard and fast rules about all of this are quite so hard or fast as they may seem.

Something else to consider.

I have Totem Mani-2 monitors that do a good job of bass in a smallish room. In my large living room, though, the bass isn't quite there. I do focus more on what's there and not what's missing (extended bass).

What's nice about this is that you can listen to different kinds of music without worry of big volumes of bass upsetting neighbors, wife, or anyone else around. Bass has a tendency to make it's way through the house more.

Ya. I'm in a fairly small listening room as well... somewhere around 12'x15'.

Another factor is finances... to drive a passive subwoofer in a floorstander, you would want to have plenty of clean power... which costs more money. I, on the otherhand, would rather have an efficient bookshelf that I can drive with a clean 50wpc without a problem.