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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. 
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helomech
1,677 posts
 
The advantage with subs (depending on sub quality), is you can place the bass drivers where they perform best in your room, which is usually somewhere other than where the mid and treble speakers perform best.

Subs and monitors take more effort to dial-in, but, the results are often superior to floorstanders IME, especially when limited by a budget of a mere mortal.
mitch2
3,969 posts
 
The smaller stand mounted speakers I have heard do not seem to carry the same gravitas as larger floor standers.  My stand mounts have dual 9-inch woofers each crossed over at  360Hz to a 6-inch midrange and they do just fine down to about 40Hz where the dual subs take over.
One question for the group is whether there is a benefit to getting the woofers up higher away from the floor (i.e., stand mounted speakers vs. floor standers).  When I went from moderately large floor standers to my current stand mounted speakers, the bass cleaned up considerably, which seemed to add resolution throughout the entire frequency range, without sacrificing body or fullness.  The deep bass (below 45Hz) from the subs is also better controlled and cleaner, and probably deeper too, than what my previous ported floor standers provided.
axeis1
291 posts
 
I use ProAc D20R with a REL S/510 Room is 15x21 I have no issues with filling the room with music. I was considering ProAc D2R but with stands but the foot print is the same as the D20R’s
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jayh
63 posts
 
Yes, but & this is a big “but”- was second system, upgraded to used Harbeth 30 M, took a lot of time dialing in subs from “not there”, almost there, too much there, way too much there” & back, wouldn’t have worked for main system.
good luck!
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arcticdeth
1,572 posts
 
Here also.  Went with nice bookshelf speakers as monitors to record my records to computer then record to cd. 
  Was great, went back to my BIC v-630’s  for recording. Much better!

 Still love my bookshelf’s!,! 
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