2. speakers
  3. 1143346945

Floor standing or stand mounted bookshelves?

I am very close to springing for a new pair of Usher 6371s, with their X616 center. That said, I have limited space and my wife has voiced her preference for stand mounted bookshelves, as they are more diminutive and would be less imposing on the small room.

However, I pointed out to her that if we do stand mounted bookshelves, we are really going to need a subwoofer, a lot more than if we used floorstanding, and I have to agree we have very limited room for a subwoofer, I'd rather live with the floor standing.

My question though is whether a set of high end bookshelves + subwoofer can really provide the quality sound equal to a set of 2.5way floorstanding speakers like the Usher 6371s..

I will be using these speakers with my Arcam AVR-250 and a split of 50/50 for music and home theater..

Thoughts and opinions?
toysnob
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
To get good sound you need good stands...the stands take up floor space, maybe not as much?...depends.

Dave
thorman
1,262 posts
 
Hey check out the "Sason" at Ridge Street Audio..You'll both be happy!
markphd
667 posts
 
I have always found better integration of treble/mid and bass with floorstanders as opposed to a satellite/sub combo. You also save the expense and clutter of interconnects. As far as space goes, the footprint of my current floorstanders is the same as the stand mounted speakers I used to have. In fact a stand mounted speaker, plus a sub, may take up more room than a floorstanding speaker because of the extra space rquired by the sub. Also, you mentioned that you use your system for HT. A good floorstanding speaker may give good bass for HT effects. You don't necessarily need to add a sub. On the other hand, if you have small bookshelfs, the sub will also be small. In effect, it will be a woofer for the small speaker, rather than a true sub. It seems counterintuitive, but you may get better bass for HT with a floorstanding speaker rather than using a small satellite/sub combo.
pabelson
344 posts
 
Well set up, two monitors and a sub can give you better quality than a pair of towers. But it depends on the speakers, your room, and how much flexibility your signif. other will grant you regarding furniture layout.

Bottom line: The only way to know is to try it out.
More to discover