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Tower vs Similar Bookshelf?

I asked this question in an unrelated thread but did not get an answer so I'm going to see what kind of input I get by posting as a separate thread:

I'm looking at lower end speakers for my cabin.

I was looking at a certain brand and noticed their lowest end small tower speaker had a 6.5" woofer and 1" tweeter. These were the same woofer  and  tweeter that come in one of their bookshelf speakers. The towers cost about $100-$150 more than the bookshelf version. Both have bass ports in the the rear.

My question is: Is there any sonic benefit over the tower model verses the bookshelf model with essentially the same hardware? Better bass? Different crossover? Any thoughts appreciated.
n80
bigjoe's avatar
bigjoe
693 posts
 
djones51 a friend of mine here in Agon found a McIntosh Pre/Pro at his local Goodwill for $300 with factory packing ,I hesitate to post his name because he flipped it for $1,200 and I know some people hate gear resellers .

Your post made me remember something very unexpected a member of Audioholics did for me ,his username is WMAX and he's some sort of audio engineer and is of the mind all amps sound the same ,seeing pictures of my McIntosh system with 4 McIntosh amps triamping my fronts he sent me a pair of Behringer A-500 pro amps that cost $199 each ,the amps are 100wpc @8ohms and 500wpc @8ohms bridged mono ,he wanted me to do a real time A/B test against my pair of McIntosh Mc-252s being ran as 500 watt monoblocks powering my mids , I did the test switching amps on the fly and didn't really hear any difference below 10 watts ,above 10 watts night & day , when I finished he told me to keep the amps as a gift ,I can also remember when the owner of Audio Salon bought a McIntosh Mc-7104 I had been wanting for my Home Theater and just sent it to me with a note saying " pay me when you can " ,there's some great people in our hobby for sure .
n80 OP
2,134 posts
 
I did a zip code eBay search just for 'stereo speakers'. Got 23 hits. All but two were Bose speakers. Not just from one place. Weird.
n80 OP
2,134 posts
 
More searching and these two are available locally:

Klipsch Synergy F-2 Black tower speakers $200 local pick up.

Polk Audio T90e Euro floor standing towers $200 local pick up.

Both sets look to be in good shape. Close by. Both look like low end speakers in terms of styling. But I'm sure both would probably sound better than the Bose 2.2s I have.
elevick
2,640 posts
 
You mentioned rear ports.  Keep in mind that rear ports usually have to stay a couple of feet away from the rear wall or they get boomy.  If it's truly a cabin and not a home you won't have room for this.  Go sealed or front ports...
n80 OP
2,134 posts
 
Good points.

The little Bose that I have a front ported. One of the Klipsch bookshelves I've looked at have a front port. The tower cited above has a front port. The Polk Audio tower has a bottom omnidirectional port so any of those would do.

However, I've actually messed with positioning the Bose and to be honest, for a cabin and being driven by an almost 40 year old receiver they don't sound all that bad. I'm probably going to stick with them for now.
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