Endless debate: monitor + sub vs floorstanding

Well...I took the plunge and got the diminutive Rel T5 to go with my Tablettes. It sits unobtrusively in the corner like a starving timber wolf, waiting for unsuspecting low frequencies, which it pounces on and devours, emitting the digested remains in an unearthly howl from the underworld. Pretty neat.

What I particularly love about this set up is how amazing it sounds at LOW VOLUME. Even when listened to quietly, the sound retains a certain pregnancy. I'm still playing and adjusting---listening to everything from Justin Bieber to Iannis Xenakis, augmented with heavy doses of Luigi Nono and Anton Webern. The system just BREATHES all over you, like a sexual deviant on a subway platform.

WOW what a description...LOL. Certain pregnancy and sexual deviant on a subway platform???

Me thinks you have been reading to many "Harlequin" romance novels.

Sounds like the sub has put him into "The O Zone" lol :)

In the cost-no-object arena (ca. a 20K+ sub/monitor or full-range speaker)--- I'd say both set-ups can be great. That said, trade-offs exist at reasonable cost. A sub/monitor combo at a combined cost of 5K vs a fine full-range speaker at 5K --- now I'd go with the full-range speaker more often than not. Subwoofers at the 1.5K range are typically boomy, slow and do not integrate well and the coherence of the full range speaker will win out far more often than not. This is especially true when trying to mate a sub with a planer speaker (Maggies, or the like).

I have also heard many try to mate a modest subwoofer (or multiple subs) with lowthers and other horns --- man... I would take a full range speaker over that almost any time as the incoherence is a problem.

That said... with a high performance, really good sub or an array of such subs one can do quite well.

The point... it all depends --- as system cost goes up the two choices become more equal --- at lower cost the trade-offs are manifest (bad coherency, unnatural sound in the sub/monitor combo and bass control in the full range --- to varying degrees.

I have owned systems of both types and generally prefer the full range speakers.