floorstanding vs. bookshelf (2 channel system) (1 Viewer)

[Walt Park]

Lewis: I was actually looking at the VA Haydn's for my 2 channel system. It was going to be either those, or the dynaudio contour 1.3's. I ended up with the GR-Research Criterions, and have been really happy with them. I was hoping to end up with something almost as good as the 1.3's, and now that they're broken in, I think they sound better. Brian Bunge above built some really nice cabinets for me, and I'm really happy with them whether they are playing background music during dinner/entertaining, or whether I just sit and get lost to decompress after a bad day at work. Music is such a good thing in life.

 

[Sasha_G]

One reason for going with bookshelves vs. *full range* floorstanding speakers in particular, is that having multiple bass sources in different locations in the room can cause dramatic swings in the bass response in different listening positions. Reflected out of phase waves boucing all around the room and reaching the listener at different times can easily cancel eachother out, creating gaps and peaks in the bass. There can be dramatic changes just by moving several feet to a different location.

To be fair, much of the problem occurs when the bass originates at different distances from the listener, and just having two full range speakers and pointed at one listener shouldn't make the biggest difference. If you have 5 or 7 full range speakers all over the room, like some people do, and they are all producing the same bass notes, this can become a real problem.

Similarly, if you have several subwoofers all over the room and at different distances from the listener, the same can happen. The difference being that subwoofers can be placed or stacked by eachother in the same location easily.