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Anyone Successfully Go from Floor Standers to Bookshelf Monitors w/ Subs?

My system is in a Large Living room which opens to dining room & Kitchen. I figure about 6k cu ft. I have Silverline Sonata speakers now with subs. Unfortunately I did not build my addition when I should have 10-15 yrs ago. Now I'm not really up to the task. Too old & wore out. So I'd love to make the LR a prettier room for my wife. One thing we talked about was the large speakers, and possibly using Watkins Gen 4 monitors. But as good as they sound, I am concerned about the ability to fill the room, or at least my listening area. As I understand, it is about moving air. I cannot see how a 6.5 & 1 inch speaker can move as much as a 10, 7, 3 & 1 inch. So I am quite concerned about that. Right now, the system sounds very pleasing to both of us. We don't want to take a backward step but can live with a sideways step if it is more visually pleasing.

Has anyone made this kind of a step from floor standers to monitors, both with subs, in a large room, with success? Or am I thinking correctly about the small speakers inability to move the proper amount of air for the room size? Thanks for your help.

OH, FWIW, The addition may not be completely out of the picture. But it depends on whether I can get one of my previous sub contractors to do a large part of it. 
128x128artemus_5
audiorusty
270 posts
 

The short answer is yes. The helpful answer is probably much more complex.

If you want to use a monitor you will want to design the system so the subs do the heavy lifting. IOW the higher the crossover point the better. 

Your concern about a 6.5” woofer being able fill that large of space is legit. Speaker makers can design a very small box and cone to cycle quite low but I have yet to hear one do it at realistic volume levels.

In my opinion, depending on what types of music you listen to and how loud you listen to them, I would cross the subs at no lower than 80 Hz and preferably closer to 120 Hz and if you really like it loud probably higher than that.


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rauliruegas
13,060 posts
 
Dear @audiorusty @artemus_5  : I forgot that crossover frequency that's so critical and my take is to have the frequency crossover around 80hz-100hz.
In this way the monitors or today speakers will run/handled frequencies from 80hz-100hz and all the way up to its hig frequency limit.

R..
bobandcindy101's avatar
bobandcindy101
62 posts
 
Spendor or ProAc mini monitors with a couple of 10–12” servo-controlled Velodyne subwoofers should work a treat. 
abd1
156 posts
 
I went from Salk Song3's (standard version w/bamboo midrange) to a pair of Clearwave Duet 6 monitors and a pair of REL T5i subs. First, both systems sounded great but there were tradeoffs probably because the speakers are different. The Clearwave's use accuton ceramic drivers vs the RAAL/bamboo/paper drivers in the Salk. With the Clearwaves and RELs the bass was more detailed, tighter, more accurate. I preferred the RAAL in the Salks to the ceramic tweeter but not by a huge margin. The RAAL just gets an airier presentation I prefer. Overall, I thought the Clearwave/REL system was more detailed, more accurate, and had better bass. However, I never tried the Salks with the pair of RELs, but I was pretty pleased with the Duet 6/REL combo and while I've moved on to Cube Nenuphars, I wasn't feeling like bringing the Salks back to replace the Duet 6/REL combo.
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,142 posts
 
I have owned many floor standers ,a good monitors disappears better and images great . I mod all the Xovers in every loudspeakers I buy for even in $20k+ speakers and up many are 
not what I would consider great parts quality in their Xover which is the heart of all Loudspeakers.
i recently bought the very good Elac Vela 403 monitors with their latest gen -5 Jet AMT tweeter ,and Diamond sandwich Mid-bass,
very well thought out design and sounded very good even before Xover upgrades,and uses the excellent SVS  SB 3000 subwoofers with their excellent app. Loading the stands with sand ,lead shot 
makes a noticable improvement , and I had custom cut black granite tops  for monitors and subs which makes great mass loading for resonance absorption and increased imaging for  under $6k this setup competes very well with floorstanders 2x+ the cost.and does several things better.
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