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Floorstanders vs Bookshelf

Looking for a bit of advice on whether a bookshelf or floorstanding speaker would be better. My room is 13’ x 43 but we sit only about 10’ away for TV watching (we could probably move the couch back a foot or 2 really). I’ve had some Dali Menuets on the wall and was happy with them but I want to move them up to another room. I tried some Monitor Audio Silver 300 and I like them when I am further out in the room working out or playing with the kids. But sitting down I find them giving me a headache, even at low volume. I listened to some Elac Carina speaker and found them to be more relaxing in the bookshelf version. I didn’t get to try the FS version. Any recommendations on what would be a better fit? My amp is a lyngdorf 1120.

valkyrieorion
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,523 posts
 

she wants to watch quietly from 10 feet away in the evening 

Do what I do. A nice stereo with floorstanders and sub, then a soundbar when I don't want to be bombarded with a wall of sound. 

ghdprentice
7,197 posts
 

Op,

Well, honestly this is pretty budget gear… and typically if it fails… it fails with the result of a lot of high frequency hash.

The volume control should satisfy your wife if the sound does not have a lot of high frequency hash (women tend to be much more sensitive to this). Typically good quality electronics will get rid of the problem… but I think speakers would be your first best bet.

I would start by looking for higher quality floor standers. Like Totem, or Sonus Faber… not B&W. You want warm and punchy. But consider spending some money on them (like a couple grand). I think you are stuck between consumer and high fi.

Since your amp has a streamer… switch services to Qobuz. It is a audiophile service. Then you can be sure the in-ut is good. Apple is not great.

if all this fails… then you are going to have to upgrade the lyndorf.

grislybutter
3,301 posts
 

so it is not a budget sytem (maybe for millionaires) it's a pretty cool amp. 

I used to have Monitor Audio Silver speakers, they were very cold sounding, precise but not warm. 

You could go for used, or demo speakers, floor standers tend to lose way more value than standmount - hence cheaper

 

like 

 

anotherbob's avatar
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anotherbob
344 posts
 

Monitor Audio Gold and Platinum speakers use a ribbon type tweeter, I have the Gold 100 stand mounts and love them, no listening fatigue at all.

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

The room is only 13 feet wide.  We don't know where the system is located.

If it is at one end of the 43 feet dimension then the driven space is much less as viewed from the perspective of the listening seat.  This would be more so if the speakers were located on the 13 foot end wall.  While true 'bookshelf' speakers might be too small (think Goodmans Maxim, 10.5 inches high, a friend of mine had them in the 1960s, they sounded good with their backs tight against the wall), bigger stand mounted types could be fine.

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