Tall floor speakers vs sub and small speakers?

Question

I just purchased a Denon reciever and am now looking to get speakers for it. Main use will be for TV (no fancy surround) and ambiant music. I enjoy a full clear mid range with a good "punch" as well. Can you get a good bass with floor speakers alone? I prefer the look of floor speakers over the small speakers hooked up to a sub. But will the sound be as good?
Also, when watching TV, (I just have a small mini Sony system, which I am replacing with the afforementioned Denon), will there be a big difference in the overall sound experience, even though I don't have the volume up that high, or is it only worth it for people who have it loud?
Lastly, would you recommend Yamaha, Polk or Athena?
Thanks

Answer 1

Hello,

It sounds like you will be most satisfied with a good pair of floorstanding loudspeakers. Of the three brands that you are considering, the Athena brand offers the most fidelity for the money -then Polk, and lastly, Yamaha.

From there, the next step up would be the Silverline Audio Prelude (a $1,200/pr. system that has the performance of other speakers costing 2-3 times as much). A much smaller footprint that any of the brands that you are considering, but one that is a master of all trades when it comes to TV and music as well as movies. Silverline is known for their superb voicing. As with most excellent floor speakers, you'll get a very good low-end response, but they won't give you much output if you fancy pipe organ music -then you will need a really good powered sub or two.

I've heard many speakers over the years in my different system set-ups and at other places as well, I know of no better retail value out there for as well rounded speaker system as the Prelude. But if the <$500/pr. is your speed, then either the Athena AS-F2.2 or the BIC Acoustech HT-75 are my choices. At least for my taste, and my taste is a balanced performer -a flat frequency response with a wide and deep soundstage and realistic imaging. I find that Polk is on the dark and dry side of the tonal scale, while the Yamaha is a little on the thin and slightly brittle side in an absolute sense.

I've owned the original Prelude and loved them. I have the Minutets now with a pair of Hsu VTF-2 Mk 3 subs. I sold the original Preludes because of one caveat I had with them -I noticed a slight frequency spike in the lower treble during my critical listening sessions. However, they have recently upgraded them and fixed that, along with bettering the highs and the lows even more, so I am excited to hear their improvements. You should read the reviews on the upgraded Preludes to further get to know what I've been talking about. Here's a reference to a couple of the reviews...

H a p p y
L i s t e n i n g !

Xe♫

Answer 2

I would say definelty get the floor speakers. You will likely miss that "clear mid range" you desire with bookshelf/sub because that range will fall between the bottom end of the bookshelfs and the top end of the sub. And I doubt the excess "thumping" will make up for it. Listening is the most important thing. Take the speakers home if you can.

You SHOULD see a big difference in sound quality when watching TV. Otherwise you're kinda wasting your money. One indicator of a good speaker is how it sounds at LOW volumes. The stores tend to play lound so you can hear and "feel" the bass. So after you've heard it loud, go turn down the volume and you should still hear everything the same (the bass tends to drop off first).

Invest in a system that sounds good at any volume you play it at!

Answer 3

I would go for the smaller speakers and the sub because they will out preform just the column speakers, as the sub can play deeper sounds that the mid ranges in the floor columns can't reach. All of they brands you listed are good, my personal pick is Yamaha, mainly because they are used yachts, and i am a sailor. The column speakers look better, but if you ant better performance go for the sub.

Answer 4

Hey,

I am more along the lines that if you are going to use your system for home theater it is best to have a dedicated sub-woofer. The deep impacts that you have in a movie soundtrack requires large amounts of power. This can sacrifice the sound quality of your mids and highs.

Check out www.jlaudio.com and look into there phantom series they have a lot of great information videos that can better answer your question.

A lot of the satellite speaker system put out sound much better than the floor speakers. Bose is a great example of this. Although they lack the beauty the floor speakers do.

Don't buy Yamaha one of the worst piece of junk out there, I bought some I hated them. You really do get what you pay for. Polk audio is pretty awesome but for serious sound it is hard to beat JL Audio.
Good luck..

Answer 5

I've always preferred MTX subs to Kicker. The top of the line Kickers are the solobarics. While yes, they are quite loud, they cannot reproduce sound as well as the MTXs. I personally think that nothing Kicker offers sounds as good as the MTX 9550. It's a beast, but with sound quality. As far as speakers go (non-subwoofers) it's a toss-up. They both make very good component sets. Your question basically comes down to one of "what do I want to listen to". You will be the best judge of the type of sound you want your vehicle to make. While you can listen to us tell you what we prefer all day, the best thing to do is to go to your local car audio shop and listen to the actual speakers and subs for yourself. Who knows, you might even find a brand other than these two that you prefer more. I hope that this helped!

Answer 6

larger floor standing speakers will do the trick - personally i have an older set of Energy speakers that still have a great sound with no requirement for a sub - remember most larger speakers are designed to be used as is without any additional pieces - i woudl go either Polk (high quality) or athena (made in Canada and very similar to Energy)

Answer 7

You sound like a candidate for large floor speakers. They tend to to lots of things better than most small speakers. However, don't rule out a subwoofer. Even with the large speakers, a subwoofer will "finish the job" at the bottom end. Also, I found that large speakers are MUCH easier to blend with a subwoofer than small ones.

Answer 8

trust me from my experience small speakers with a sub and music is a bad comination they just dont cut it and if you dont want surround your just wasting your money. i would recomend a pair of towers and a sub the tower speakers will give you really good punch. but if you use a sub you can get a cleaner sound by sending the low end bass to your sub not the speakers.


heres a good setup

speakers:Klipsch RF15 tower speakers $249.88 each

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/542300055?v_c=CPSpkrsKlipschRE15031407_CP

sub: Infinity PS-10 $299.98

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/details/549349589

ok so the speakers hit bass down to 46hz which is good

and the sub has a cross over from 50hz on down to 27hz so if you used these two i would set the crossover on your reciever to 50hz so from 50hz up to 20,000hz will go to your speakers and from 50hz down to 27hz will go to your sub which will give you a very broad frequency response will heart pounding bass that has amazing midrange.


heres another set of speakers you should check out

Acoustech Cinema Series Tower Speakers 1 Pair (these speakers do outperfrom the speakers i suggested above but not by much.

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=1513352&AK=1

these have a 35Hz-20kHz frequency response which is very good

and they are super efficent with a 96dB sensitivity

ps. i would order from vanns becuase no sales tax and free shipping plus good prices