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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
celtic66
1,679 posts
 

The conversation takes on a circuitous flavor.  Some just want more bass; not necessarily distinct bass, but more of it, driving.  

Others want to hear the bowing differences between Eddie Gomez and Ray Brown. Yet others want both.  And there is the rub.

Non-ported bookshelf speakers are usually better at the distinct characteristic while struggling with the driving bass delivery.  They usually image better too.

Floorstanders do the volume delivery thing while struggling with the distinct.  They give the boom boom boom.  And, it's tough to make them disappear like bookshelf monitors.

It takes a lot to nail down the perfect storm of both (distinct bass, driving bass) done really well.

I've found attention to detail upstream to delivery just as much as the speaker itself. Proper cabling rectified as much as speaker design, isolation, positioning and room treatment.  It's all a game of step-by-step analysis and improvement in the entire chain.  The weakest link syndrome.  Best of luck on the journey.

jonasandezekiel OP
158 posts
 

Does anyone have opinions about the smaller companies I mentioned, such as Fritz or Philharmonic? I’ve heard nothing but praise for both, but most of that praise was of the paid-for variety, so I’m curious about what they’re saying on the streets. 

jon_5912
605 posts
 

In my experience you need at least an 8" woofer for a speaker to play large scale music to my satisfaction.  It's not about deep bass, I think it's dynamics in mid and upper bass.  In a 3 way speaker a 10" woofer is about ideal.  It only matters for orchestra or meaty, loud rock.  If it's small scale acoustic music I think bookshelves and a sub are fine.

pwoodard922
37 posts
 

I loved my Fritz Carrera BE speakers.  Well made.  I much preferred them over my KEF LS50 metas or Harbeth P3 ESRs.  Reach out to Fritz.  Great guy and he can answer any questions you might have

erik_squires
16,373 posts
 

Fritz are excellent. The sliced cone drivers have an amazing amount of bass and he expertly mates them with top end tweets in relatively small packages

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