ttarasu
Active Member
As the specification were not clear,wanted to add another
Floorstanders or Bookshelves!Advice required
- Thread starter ash147
- Start date
As the specification were not clear,wanted to add another
shkumar4963
New Member
Other than price book shelf for the same price provide better quality speakers. They also look more comfortable and in place in any room less that 15 by 25.
shkumar4963
New Member
preth30. You are absolutely correct. For a room of small to medium size invest in better quality speakers than a large box and it's workmanship and polish. I am partial to Q300, R300, LS50 but have heard cm and 685 from B&W and they are all great.
There is one thing to think about in the logic you gave (and many other have also given). Bookshelves, at least most of the compact ones simply do not give any bass. Or they are so inefficient that they require a monster amp to "shine".
Good bass is as important as good midrange or good highs. After all, it is part of the audio spectrum and ironically, with age, we lose our ability to hear highs but don't lose our ability to listen to bass.
If you want to do a true cost benefit analysis, you should compare the sound quality of a floorstander with bookshelves plus subwoofer. Once you include the cost of a sub, you realize that you get much much less quality of speaker for your money.
Otherwise, it is like comparing a decent all rounder TV with another TV that does reds and greens very well, but cannot render blues. Sorry for the bad analogy!
Guys let me throw my hat in the ring. I firmly belive that small to mid size rooms will work better with book shelf speakers. Though the low frequency extension of a FS will be better, ultimately bass is the most problematic area - acoustics wise - in a small room. You are likely to experience boomy mid bass, extreme nulls and peaks etc. with normal floor stander placement i.e; a few feet away from corners. If you want FS to work with a small/medium room you have to be willing to spend considerable time on placement and ultimately some FS will never work with small rooms. However with BS this problem can be greatly mitigated, and nowadays many larger bookshelf designs have bass xtension to the 40-45hz range below which very few musical instruments venture. Finally if one really want low bass in a small/medium room - assuming they like organ recordings or perhaps a lot of synth bass, a subwoofer will be a better bet as placement flexibility is much higher. Perhaps it may cost more (BS + subwoofer) when compared to FS, but it IMO it sounds a whole lot better expecially at mid and low bass.
Cheers,
Sid
Cheers,
Sid
Most bookshelves however are not really bookshelves. That is, one cannot get away with placing them in a cabinet (and still get decent audio quality). So we need to place bookshelves on stands.. Which means the same footprint as a floor stander , and now the true cost becomes cost of be plus stand plus sub. A bookshelf that goes low enough usually has the same footprint or often even more than a typical fs.
No arguments about quality. Personally I would buy the bw matrix 805 in a heartbeat.. And I almost did. But I still find it a pain to add a sub to the equation. If bs plus sub requires careful setup or eq, then the same can be said about an fs. An fs with room eq would give us the controlled bass we are harking for.
Yes agree 100%, they should be called stand mounters, but book shelf name seems to be persisiting for whatever reason. However my recommendation of a BS over FS for a small room has nothing to do with space saving or footprint but everything to do with mid bass and below frequencies which are very difficult to get right in a small space. And yes I agree one has to factor cost of stands.
Personally I do not like to mess with any equalization, atleast for me it degrades SQ, and yes integrating a sub into a stereo setup is not easy as well, (especially if the preamp does not have sub out, even worse using the built in x-over of sub with line level inputs - adds another component in chain - usually not a very good one with lower cost subs - along with another set of interconnects)
so my preference -I would like to get a bookshelf (standmounter), with a 6"-7" mid/bass driver and be done with it. No messing with excessive placement trials of FS, dealing with boomy bass etc. Anyways just my views - of course if one has a large space - my definition of larger space is at-least 20' length, 14' width and 9' height - then FS starts making sense. In my experience pulling out FS at-least 3'-4' from side walls and 5' from rear walls is about right to stop exciting room bass nodes, and this would be quite difficult for small rooms (of-course there are a lot of placement guidelines/methods available - cardas etc .but I am speaking in general).
Cheers,
Sid
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shkumar4963
New Member
You are correct. FS do provide better ambiance because of low frequencies. But lack in imaging and tightness if bass. Now most Indian music is not recorded for imaging so that can be ignored. But tightness of bass is still an issue. This is because of two reasons. Producing tight bass requires power that your amplifier just can not provide. Good subs have dedicated amp that are 300 to 1000 watts. And even if they can, they take it from mid and high end drivers coloring then in the process. The other is that bass driver being in the same cabinet as mid color them somewhat making mids not that precise. Now some high end FS have started separating the chambers for bass and mid drivers. But now you are talking serious money.
Finally the problem of placement that Sidvee mentioned. The location for mids and highs are never the same place where low frequency driver should be.
So if you have a small or medium size room and are designing the system for one or two people (imaging) BS with or without sub will be the best. I listened to LS50 witjout the sub. They go till 79Hz -3db. But the bass was tight. I did not feel a need for sub. But if you hear R300 about the same size they go till 50 hz with a.a little less right bass and a little less clear imaging.
Finally the problem of placement that Sidvee mentioned. The location for mids and highs are never the same place where low frequency driver should be.
So if you have a small or medium size room and are designing the system for one or two people (imaging) BS with or without sub will be the best. I listened to LS50 witjout the sub. They go till 79Hz -3db. But the bass was tight. I did not feel a need for sub. But if you hear R300 about the same size they go till 50 hz with a.a little less right bass and a little less clear imaging.
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shkumar4963
New Member
Also think about how two FS will look stanning 5 ft from the back wall. with about 12 inches deep the front will be 6 ft from the back wall. Compare this to BS about 11 inches from the wall and sub somewhere in the middle of the room or behind the soft couch.
shkumar4963
New Member
Good point. But that added cost probably gives much better bass and flexibility on sub placement that is not available with FS.There is one thing to think about in the logic you gave (and many other have also given). Bookshelves, at least most of the compact ones simply do not give any bass. Or they are so inefficient that they require a monster amp to "shine".
Good bass is as important as good midrange or good highs. After all, it is part of the audio spectrum and ironically, with age, we lose our ability to hear highs but don't lose our ability to listen to bass.
If you want to do a true cost benefit analysis, you should compare the sound quality of a floorstander with bookshelves plus subwoofer. Once you include the cost of a sub, you realize that you get much much less quality of speaker for your money.
Otherwise, it is like comparing a decent all rounder TV with another TV that does reds and greens very well, but cannot render blues. Sorry for the bad analogy!
shkumar4963
New Member
After much reading and auditioning here is what I think now. For music use, If the room is 35 Sq meter or more, look for floor standers. If aesthetics don't allow floor standing speakers then go for the best speaker that can provide flat response and no phase shift at 80 hz and above and then get a sealed sub. Yes. They are also inefficient so need a better amp. But anything above 50 watt of clean power should be good. Remember these are for music listening not blasting the neighbors.
In addition they do provide better imaging, more accurate sound for mids and highs, less phase shift errors between harmonics etc. And for the same money you will get a better speaker. Also don't forget you have better positional flexibility between tweeter *for imaging" and sub for bass control and standing wave control.
In addition they do provide better imaging, more accurate sound for mids and highs, less phase shift errors between harmonics etc. And for the same money you will get a better speaker. Also don't forget you have better positional flexibility between tweeter *for imaging" and sub for bass control and standing wave control.
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Hi All,
I am new to this Forum, need help I have brand new Jamo 708 Speaker only single Speaker. As I lost one Speaker and Yamaha set in transit. I had planned to use this set of speakers along with my Yamaha 2600.
Now the bloddy set is gone and this single Tower speaker is left.
How can I best utilize this single pc.
I would require a amp (may be a good mono Amp).
Please suggest.
Regards
AB
I am new to this Forum, need help I have brand new Jamo 708 Speaker only single Speaker. As I lost one Speaker and Yamaha set in transit. I had planned to use this set of speakers along with my Yamaha 2600.
Now the bloddy set is gone and this single Tower speaker is left.
How can I best utilize this single pc.
I would require a amp (may be a good mono Amp).
Please suggest.
Regards
AB
Please do not hijack the thread. Instead open a new one for your separate query.
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