Upgrade to ATC / Bryston

I will politely disagree with Bob and Kiddman; I would not recommend a bookshelf and sub system, with or without bass management) as an assured advantage over (sota or not) a floor standing speaker, even a fully passive one. When I am seeking a serious SOTA sound I work with floor standing speakers, not bookshelf speakers.

The Legacy Audio Whisper DSW Clarity Edition (reviewed for Dagogo.com) can be configured either active or passive x-over. I can by changing cabling and components elicit superior sound from the passive mode over the active mode with different cables/components. I have demonstrated using the same speaker system that a person certainly does not have to move to an active system to achieve a superior result. Now, would the active x-over mode likely be better with the favored components; sure, likely. But unless you have all the components on hand to assess and the capacity to test both active and passive modes on a speaker you have no clue what the result would be. You also have no clue how it would perform up against any given passive floor standing speaker.

You can declare all you want that any given bookshelf/sub (even with bass management) setup will beat a floor standing speaker, but unless you have the comparison at hand you are overreaching in your statement. I assert that any given floor standing speaker may beat a bookshelf/active bass setup and not have to cost an arm and a leg to do so. The only nearly assured advantage for the bookshelf/sub setup is extened LF - that is all.

We could go round and round about this, but I'll leave it at that. I'm not interested in debating this further, though it has been pleasant. :)

Regarding bookshelf/sub systems and an attempt on SOTA, I would not recommend it as first option. I could pursue very fine bookshelf speakers and have subs, but I'll take the fine floor standing speaker for ultimate sound quality nearly every time. The only time I would urge a bookshelf/sub setup is if one has financial constraints and or space issues. i.e. When I get too old to huck around big speakers, then I'll be forced to go with smaller ones. But I'm not going to kid myself and dream that they as a genre of speaker will perform on the same level as the big floor standing speakers; that would be a delusion, imo.

Earl seems to have dismissed using sets of cables, doesn't seem to desire reconsidering moving to multi-way speakers and seems fixated on the power rating of the amp. So, there's not much else to discuss there. :(

Bob, no, I did not overlook that point; it simply does not make your argument true, imo. You think a bookshelf with bass management is going to assure superior performance, and I disagree.

Why do you assume that large floor standing speakers require high SPL? I use many large floor standing speakers, none of which require high SPL. Usually high SPL is an effort to recreate live or concert sound, which I don't care to do. I don't think it's particularly good sounding, nor sensible.

Douglas, don't misrepresent what I said. I never said that a bookshelf/sub combo is better. I merely said that different amps can be used on a sub and a speaker and still get great results.

For the record, I've never heard a bookshelf speaker and sub combo that sounds state of the art. The best subwoofered systems I have heard use big, full range speakers in conjunction with subwoofers. I don't do bookshelf speakers, I don't like bookshelf speakers, with subs or not, and never represented anything about bookshelf speakers.

Kiddman, you are right; I assumed you were piggy backing on bob's thoughts. Thanks for the correction.