2 way vs 3 way / Monitors vs. Floorstanding

Don't forget to factor in subwoofer(s) if you like bass or have a large room.

Crossovers are subtractive, in every sense. They remove signal from the speaker. Good speakers will suffer less from this, but simplicity in the signal path is of prime importance.

Another issue that cannot be over stated is matching speaker size to room size. There are basic mathematical formulas that will tell you if there is enough room volume for the low frequencies to bloom, or if they will collapse. Big, floor standing speakers need a big room (if you're wondering if your room is big enough, it's not) to sound their best. Smaller speakers with less bass will sound better in a mid to small sized room. As a rule, smaller is safer, but you loose the cool factor.

Floor standing vs monitors is less of an issue. There are good full range monitors and there are good restricted frequency speakers that are floor standing.

It doesn't matter how good the gear is, or how good the speakers are, if they are too much/big for your room THEY WILL NOT WORK. Ego is a great motivator when it comes to buying speaker, but his sister prudence is much the wiser.

2 way...standmount or floor stander.

Merlin VSM-MM owner
Chris

A key that is often overlooked is your room & proper room matching. You want to consider the room your system will be placed in. Will it be there for a few months, or many years? Then you want to consider a speaker that isn't too much for the room or it will overload the room. Also, on the other side you don't want one that is too small and needs to be almost "over driven" and sound strained... keep the room size and proper matching in mind. Go from there, including the good advice above.

The comments on speaker and room matching are really important. Only problem is that there are also no givens there, mostly because there's so much overlap in what you can get in bookshelf and floor systems. You can do your research and all but in the end you have to try 'em out to know if they're too small, too big, or just right.

And from everything I'd ever heard & read, 2-way vs. 3-way is not a simple call - there are advantages & disadvantages to both. Crossovers are just one part of it - there are other compromises in 2-way systems (phase modulation, etc.) so in the end it's the overall design & execution quality of the whole system that matters (plus you'll still likely need a sub w/ a 2-way). There might be more than just marketing to why B&W, Paradigm, etc. do something more that 2-way toward the top of the line.

A 1-way (look ma! no crossover!) would be the most wunnerful if crossovers were the biggest/only issue. But only certain tiny-cube companies would do stuff like that???