Although i agree with having full range towers would be ideal for music.
Don't you a think a quality sub woofer well calibrated with decent bookshelf speakers can give you near identical performance?
Sorry, I haven;t been here so frequently these days. The variables in that approach are:
- quality sub woofer - Hard to get at a budget
- well calibrated - Very hard to do. Most people have their sub set at 8-12 dB above the rest of the spectrum and feel a great sense of "bass" presence there. I don't think that's makes for a great balanced sound
- decent bookshelf - Cost as much as floorstanders. Need good stands. Are difficult to position well and keep steady. Not very child friendly. Total cost of ownership increases and headaches are more.
Floorstanders don't do the job when someone needs certain frequencies to be 12 dBs higher than the rest of the spectrum.
A good (or even a decent) floorstander would invariably beat a bookshelf on the imaging and dynamics front. The integration, in case of a floorstander (Vs Bookshelf + Sub) is a LOT better. No tweaking around, the sub on a daily basis. Unless the sub has a microprocessor based controller built in, to get a sound as well integrated as an equivalent floorstander would produce, it would take a constant tweaking of the sub. Not to mention the problem of "hiding" the sub.
Other problems are cut off frequency and phase. Personally, if I were to add a sub then I would imagine adding two subs (to maintain the stereo image, which I'll never get right anyway because of minor phase errors). They do say low-frequency sound is not so directional. But try a setup with one sub and then with two subs and then see the difference.
Cut off frequency is another area of problem. It takes a lot of time to find and settle onto a cut off frequency. You are never satisfied and you never get it right. More over you need an amp which has a sub out, and again, has a nice one.
A good, well designed, floorstander would constantly beat a equally costly Bookshelf + Stands + Sub (add to that the cost of additional cabling). I personally feel it is a lot more wiser to invest in a quality floorstander than live with Bookshelf + sub.