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Should I graduate to floor standers or will larger bookshelves suffice?

Hey guys,
I moved into a larger space several years ago, more of an open floor plan, and soon realized that my current speakers, Legacy Studio HD, in a surround array, might be a bit overwhelmed. It’s a weird, asymmetrical space, but it’s also significantly larger than my previous one. So the title of my post says it all…can I still get adequate coverage with bookshelf speakers, or do I now need floor standers? A friend told me to basically “sit closer to the tv” but that isn’t practical.

I thought about the Calibres from Legacy as an option, which is about my price range…up to 7k or so. I also see all these great internet only brands, like Fritz, or Philharmonic, etc, and I hear about their prodigious extension and sound stage, but can these bookshelves fill my room, or any room for that matter?

Let me also add, I have no problem graduating to floor standers, so suggestions are also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

jonasandezekiel
deep_333
1,559 posts
 

Bookshelves+stands and floorstanders typically have the same footprint. When a dude's claiming he saved space, he did not ( it was just psychological for the dude). Unless you're stuck with nearfield listening distances (where drivers don't have room to sum) or budget constraints, don't bother with dinky lil bookshelves.

When a manufacturer offers both floorstanders and bookshelves, typically the engineer's maximum time and devotion goes to the floorstander (the bookshelf's the dinky lil afterthought). Always go with the floorstander when possible.

secretguy
1,756 posts
 

I never got the "logic" of using stand mounts when they take up the same floor space and are inferior to Floorstanders.

larryi
4,098 posts
 

I also thought that it makes no sense to go with stand-mounted speakers that take the same floorspace as floor standing speakers.  But, there are many examples of stand mounted speakers that are really good and sound better than many comparably sized and priced floor standing speakers.  One should not automatically make assumptions based on general characteristics.

ltmandella's avatar
ltmandella
174 posts
 

@secretguy:  Nah

 

erik_squires
16,373 posts
 

@secretguy 

 

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