Monitor with sub or Full Range Speakers

"I have a budget of $3,000.00 for a pair of used speakers... My listening is mostly jazz, old R&B, and contemporary Christin music."

"Looking for comments from those who have owned both and why they preferred one or the other.

My room is about 18 x 14 with 9ft ceilings."

Hi Revrob,

I have also had both types of setups. I think it will cost you well over $3000 to buy Monitors, Stands, and 1 or 2 Subs. That aside, it is very difficult to mate Monitors and Subs, however with more money, patience, and skill, the sound could be very rewarding.

However, with your budget, room size, current equipment, and the types of music that you listen to, I think you will do better with floor standing speakers. Now, with that being said, you could always add a Sub to the floor standers, down the line.

Rich

Rich,

I did find monitors, subwoofer, and stands for about $3,000 shipped from Selah Audio. Rick from Selah has some really good product and as soon as I sell some of my equipment I may pull the trigger on these. I usually don't buy new but I am intrigued by the Selah line of speakers.

Thanks for all the comments, I guess this is an ongoing debate on this topic.

Both ways work.

The debate always comes via those who just haven't dove into the other pool yet.

Hi Revrob,

I think it's great that you found the sound that you've been looking for, within your budget. I've never heard of this company, but I did check out their website and I am familiar with some of the drivers that they use which I believe are very good and their cabinetry work looks top notch too.

Certainly the key to unlock this discussion, is less about price shopping, and more about coherency of the drivers, location of one sub in the room, as well as crossover integration and volume matching of the sub to the monitors so that the sub does not stand out. As I mentioned earlier, if you can achieve this, than you will be rewarded with a wonderful sound.

Now, with that in mind why don't you also take a look at what is available in the used floor-standers market for around $3000 I suspect you may be looking at an original retail price of around 5-6 thousand new. If you are still interested in a sub, which may not be necessary based on the types of music that you listen to, you could always add a sub to the floor-standers later, and in my experience it is a little easier to match a sub to a floor-stander speaker that has deeper bass, than it is to match it to a monitor which has less bass, because you will be able to select a lower crossover point with the larger speaker.

Happy Listening,
Rich

Blindjim,

At the risk of dating myself, I last swam in the sub/sat pool in the 1970's -Kef Corellis w/ an M&K sub- and climbed out due to dangerous surf conditions. I just never got it to sound right.

I spent the next 25 years in the full range pool, using very high quality examples from Merlin, Verity, Maggie, and SF, among others. I only waded back into the sub/sat waters last year - and even then I had no intention of taking this approach for my main 2 channel system.

I have now discovered how effective the current digital PEq units are. They not only "fix" the room, but allow a much better shot at seamless integration between subs and sats. In the last few years, the game has fundamentally changed for sub/sat users. True, there are digitally controlled full range units out there, but none (that I know of) at the OPs stated budget.

Just wanted to clarify that the debate also continues from some who dipped much more than a toe in both pools.

Marty