Bookshelf or floorstander speakers for a large room?

[miggyboys]

Hello everyone!

I'm buying some 5.1 speakers for a large cellar / basement which is a 760 sq ft rectangular room (33ft length x 23ft wide). I'd prefer bookshelf rather than floorstanders (I'm going to wall mount them), purely for aesthetic and styling reasons.

The TV is in one half of the room, facing towards the length of the room, as will be the speakers. The side speakers will be side on pointing to a sweet spot in that first half of the room. The second half of the room, further away from the TV has got weight training equipment.

I'm just going to be casually watching TV or films or listening to stereo music so I'm not after some blow your ears out system. My current volume levels for watching TV tends to be -5 to 1db. I'll also be watching TV or listening to stereo music whilst I workout, which has a seating position at the other side of the room.

Will bookshelfs be powerful enough? I've been told that they will not be and that I'll either need floorstanders at the front or floorstanders all the way round, which I really don't want.

To my knowledge, audiophiles tend to want overly powerful amps and speakers so there isn't a strain on either element. I always think that manufacturers measure speakers v room size on the fact that everyone is listening to sound at high volumes.

Advice and your thoughts please!
Miggyboys

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

33 ft x 23 ft is actually quite a fair sized room (or basement).

I would go with floor-standers myself as they always seem to deliver more "oomph" than bookshelf units and by the time you add the price of decent stands to the price of decent bookshelf or stand-mount speakers you're at or near the cost of floorstanders. You also don't use up any more (or less) floor space putting stand-mounters on stand compared to full-on floorstanders.

IMHO bookshelf speakers are for small living rooms, studies, hall of residence bedrooms, etc.

Just to muddy the waters, however, some manufacturers produce larger "stand-mount" speakers somewhere between genuine bookshelf and geniune floorstanders, and I'm reminded of my late grandfather's old Wharfdales as an example - about 18 inches wide, 24-30 inches high and 12 inches or so deep. There are some great (quite expensive) examples out there that fit into this category.

Back to floor-standers, however. Bear in mind anyone working out might want to crank up the stereo as well.

For the surround sound, erm, surround sound speakers, bookshelf units on wall brackets or even stands should be fine, and you can position those to favour watching TV.

Oh yeah, and if you don't like loud stereos, remember you can always turn the volume down.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

That's quit a big room, just over twice as big as my parlour, which hosts floorstanders as the front and the surround speakers in my 12.1 system. You should definitely get floorstanders in your big room.

 

[miggyboys]

Hi Benedict_Arnold

Thanks for the reply. I wanted to wall mount the bookshelves but I agree with your philosophy of the space bookshelves take up including their stands + cost. I always prefer floorstanders - I'd have to be convinced that bookshelves will be powerful enough.

 

[miggyboys]

Son_of_SJ, do you find the surround bookshelves and centre speaker loud enough for your room when using 12.1?

 

[ideal av]

I'd go with sats if it suits you and then add a good subwoofer

 

[f1only]

You can always wall mount the floorstanders

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Son_of_SJ, do you find the surround bookshelves and centre speaker loud enough for your room when using 12.1?

Hello miggyboys, I said "which hosts floorstanders as the front and the surround speakers in my 12.1 system." So the surround speakers are also floorstanders, though in fact I have them on stands 70 cm high, because that is what was recommended for speaker placement in the manual of my Denon AVR-4810 receiver. Just to be clear, the front left and right, the surround left and right are floorstanders, and set to "Large" in the receiver's speaker setup. The centre, front wide, front high and surround back speakers are all bookshelf speaker size, no more than 30cm high, and are set to "small".

I find all the speakers (having balanced them so that they all sound equally loud from the main listening position) to be more than loud enough, but that's also due to the power of the Denon reveiver, I guess. Remember, my room is only 18'2" long by 14'3" wide by 10'6" high, less than half the size of yours.

By the way, these are my main front left and right speakers, bought in 2009 or 2010, from the Netherlands. You can use google translate, but measurements should be pretty clear.

http://www.djelectronics.nl/eltax-s35-luidspreker-250-w-rms-3weg-systeem-zwartwalnoot-p-649.html

And these, only marginally smaller, are the surround (not surround back) loudspeakers.

http://www.djelectronics.nl/eltax-s34-luidspreker-200400-w-3weg-systeem-witwalnoot-p-652.html