towers vs book shelf

gadgetman

They say the tower produce more sound than book shelf speakers.
And sat speakers are weak .

okiepolkie

There is a common misconception that bookshelves(which are not necessarily satelites) are "weak."

The only part bookshelves tend to lack in would be the low bass department. Mated with a good subwoofer, I tend to enjoy bookshelves more than towers. Many bookshelves will have smoother midrange sound than towers in the same lineup, although this is not alwayst the case. Also, bookshelf speakers tend to require less power than tower speakers, especially when a separate powered subwoofer is involved. It is often ovserved that a subwoofer helps to get the full spectrum of sound with towers as well.

One of the minuses for bookshelves would be that, most likely, you would have to put them on stands. I tend to like speakers on stands, but that is my opinion.

A rule of thumb expressed by some on this forum would be to find the tower speaker that you are willing to purchase, then buy the bookshelf speaker from the line above it. An example might be that if someone is willing to buy the RTi8's, get the LSi7's instead and then mate them with a subwoofer.

Personal preference comes into play a lot when determining which would be better, but it is not safe to say that bookshelf speakers are "weaker" than towers.

Hope this has helped.

Zach

Schris22

^^
agreed

though sometimes...the rule of thumb thing would be exactly that....a guideline but not a exact rule....don't go up a line. A lot of times sounds can change. In the example he gives there are a lot of the things that are going to change when you go from the Rti to the LSi and considerations in the equipment.

Though I'll do this as now I have the R50's but want to move to paradigm monitor 5 or 7 but gonna go for the studio (upgraded line but bookshelves) 20's or 40s

If you get bookshelves subs are a must esepcailly for HT.

Chris

BIZILL

my rti8 towers sound only marginally better than my rti6 bookshelf speakers. but when you cross them over down low, tower vs. bookshelf doesn't really come into play as much. of course that is the case when paired with a good sub. plus, as okie said, bookshelves take less power. i personally would stay in the same line or series of speakers.

gregure

Towers will almost always give you a wider soundstage, and will fill a large room easier. You may notice you have to turn the volume up louder to achieve similar volumes from a bookshelf. That said, there is nothing wrong with a good bookshelf mated with a sub. Personally, I like towers better for music and movies, and have found that bookshelf speakers just don't get the job done for movies.

2+2

all matter of execution....with that said, in general, I prefer good towers over bookshelf/sub combo b/c they have a very full, well integrated sound...

BrentMcGhee

gadgetman wrote:

They say the tower produce more sound than book shelf speakers.
And sat speakers are weak .

Who is this mysterious "THEY" you are refering to???

Anyway... while all the oppinions above are good ones they are still just that, oppinions. You really just need to listen to the speakers in question with out any preconceived notions about bookshelves vs towers. You need to get the better sounding speaker, or at least the better sounding speaker to you.

With that being said my opinion is to go with bookshelves. I prefer there sound over there tower counterparts.

okiepolkie

gregure wrote:

Towers will almost always give you a wider soundstage, and will fill a large room easier. You may notice you have to turn the volume up louder to achieve similar volumes from a bookshelf.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to start an argument here. As much as anything I'm trying to develop my own understanding as much as the next guy.

How would towers give you a wider soundstage? I might be able to understand if they provide a fuller soundstage(if a subwoofer is not involved at all), because they can reproduce more of the full frequency spectrum. However, since low frequencies are non directional, I don't see how this could affect the wideness of a soundstage when comparing bookshelves, even without a sub.

The second part confuses me as well, because this would indicate that bookshelves are less efficient than their tower counterparts. I've not see this to be the case in Polk's lineup. The RTi6's have the same sensitivity as the RTi10's. Where I could see a difference, would be if the tower speaker is using more than 1 driver to play the same signal(i.e. two 6.5" woofers playing the same singal). Again, the bass is usually the only area where this could be different. If the bookshelf is not crossed over with a sub, playing full range, then the lower frequencies would become more apparent, but the highs would be louder as well. The midrange woofer on the bookshelves can play low frequencies, but they generally cannot play them as well as a tower speaker because of the internal volume of the enclosure. The lower frequencies are reproduced at a much lower loudness level.

This is my understanding to this point. I've tried both speakers, comparing them both, and my personal opinion, like I stated in my first post, is that I like the bookshelves better.

Listen for yourself and see what you like better.

VR3

Effeciency goes in several directions.

There is power effeciency and there is enclosure effeciency.

A subwoofer for instance... can use a large enclosure, moderate amp and cost less than a small sub, with a huge amp and cost much more.

But my point is, a large enclosure is more effecienct... you pair that enclosure with the higher power handling towers posess due to the more effeciency enclosure - you get a louder speaker.

It has nothing to do with 1w/1m.

Eman

What they say is true. A small speaker cant produce as much SPL as a tower for the entire frequency range which is important for louder volumes and stronger movie effects -often you hear of a speakers ability to fill a room which small satellites or small bookshelves have a difficult time. A sub helps at low frequencies but thats it and you can have a sub with a tower as well so this is trivial. Dispersion is also different for multiple drivers vs a single one and this might allow for a wider balanced listening position . These are but a few things which are different then there is also the effect of the enclosure being smaller etc. For medium to small rooms bookshelves do have some advantages and some bookshelves which have better quality components can sound better than some towers but if comparing within the same or comparable line a tower should perform better and most often it does.

Dennis Gardner

Its simple........................Women want sats. Men want towers.

Men who know their place end up with bookshelves.

dragon1952

I've heard the opinion many times that a bookshelf speaker imaged better than it's tower counterpart of the same brand/line....i.e., Paradigm Studio 40 over the Studio 60. Of course the bigger cabinet will improve lower bass. Generally speaking and all things being equal, etc, etc, and so on and so forth.

BIZILL

Dennis Gardner wrote:

Its simple........................Women want sats. Men want towers.

Men who know their place end up with bookshelves.

does that make me quite the man? i've got tower surrounds.

BIZILL

oops...............guess not.

Dennis Gardner

I started with Polk sats. RM 5400/6600 I didn't know any different, just knew that Bose wasn't full frequency enough for the $$$. Then moved to bookshelf models, RT25s and 55s. Both nice for what they do, but when I needed more quality 2 channel out of my main system, I went SDA floorstanders. Besides, towers look best beside my 8 foot screen.

My current take is you should buy the most speaker your room can handle, be it bookshelves or towers, but sats just don't really cut it for the digital formats that soundtracks use today. You lose too much full range info.

ledhed

You can't really compare SDAs with bookshelves. Presonally, I like bookshelves better, they sound more precise-the larger enclosure seems abit muddy for me. This is comparing my RT5s with RT1000Ps. The 5s even have less power and less quality in the reciever (My reciever is in the shop right now, so Ive been using an old Kenwood replacement)

Dennis Gardner

ledhed wrote:

You can't really compare SDAs with bookshelves.

You are right, and I didn't mention the RTi70s between the 55s and SDAs.
The towers looked better, but I liked the 55s sound better than the Rti70 towers. They had tighter bass for music, and I liked the tweeter better.

See, I can go both ways in this debate.

McLoki

I like the looks of towers (LSi15's), my wife liked the look of something a little smaller. (rm-6600) we settled on LSi7's. For movie soundtracks I don't feel I gave up anything in sound quality (I am sure 2 channel would be different). The Sound is about what I wanted and the look is about what she wanted. All in all, not a bad comprimise.

BTW - I did compare the LSi7's to the LSi15's with the same amp playing 2 or 3 movies on each one. The sound difference with both set to small in my AVR was not that great at all. For movies (what I listen to 95% of the time) bookshelves will get me to reference level and sound great doing it. I say save the extra money and purchase more movies...

Michael

gregure

To add to what was already said, (and thanks for so eloquently supporting my statements guys, I'll be more detailed next time), the wider sound stage and volume output in towers has everything to do with cabinet construction and driver array. As a practical example, last night I was showing some Vienna Acoustic speakers to a customer for use in his bedroom. I played "Money" from Dark Side on the Haydn bookshelf speakers, which have a 1" silk dome and a 6" mid/bass driver in a small wood cabinet. While he was impressed with the sound, and they offered wonderful imaging and decent bass response, I played him the Beethoven Baby Grands as well, which employ the same 1" silk tweeter and 6" mid, but adds two 6" bass drivers, in a wooden cabinet about 39" high. For starters, although the imaging was just as precise, we noticed how details were a bit clearer, bass was obviously deeper, vocals were more "in the room" sounding, and the output was louder, filling the room much better to the point that I actually turned down the amp to compensate. While the Haydns are some of the best bookshelf speakers I've ever heard, they still pale in comparison to the towers from the same line. For movies, the Haydns would be an excellent choice in a smaller room, but you would still get more impact and clarity from a tower. 4 x the wood enclosure and twice the drivers = better sound for a medium to large room.