Standmount speakers to replace floorstanders ?

stevee1966

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I currently use a combination of Roksan Caspian M2 amp and cd player connected to a pair of Monitor Audio RX6 speakers. Room size is 5m wide by 4m, so in my seated position i'm around 3 metres away from the speakers. Music listened to is mainly guitar based rock, prog, indie though no genre is off limits.

Been thinking of getting some new speakers and due to size of the room am considering some standmounts. Initial thoughts are for B&W CM6's or PM1's.

1. Has anyone used these speakers and if so what's your verdict on them ?

2. Any opinions on how well or badly these will combine with my Roksans ?

3. Am i going down the right route or would floorstanders be better considering the room size - maybe the B&W CM8, 9 or 10's ?

Thanks in advance for any advice / info.
 
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I too recently thought about going stand mount, I don't know why it never struck me at the time, but surely stand mounted speakers take up a similar amount of room as a floor standing speaker when they are 'stand mounted'? So then to sound, dont floor standers sound bigger when the volume goes up?

I dunno!
 

BigH

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hybridauth_Facebook_1172653444 said:
I too recently thought about going stand mount, I don't know why it never struck me at the time, but surely stand mounted speakers take up a similar amount of room as a floor standing speaker when they are 'stand mounted'? So then to sound, dont floor standers sound bigger when the volume goes up?

I dunno!

Well there will be more bass from Floorstanders. But stand mounts are generally more tolerant of positioning and have less bass issues. So maybe take up same space but if they need to further away from walls? I would say at same price standmounts are better. I would not consider cheap floorstanders. But it depends on room and your taste.
 

Pedro2

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I recently moved from floor to stand-mounts for reasons of room acoustics and too much bass. Now listening with ATC Scm11. I also have a Caspian power amp.

After some repositioning of speakers (about 20cm from back wall and firing front without toe in) I'm very pleased with the sound. It's crisp, exciting, open and detailed. I don't get listener fatigue and although there's detail, the emotion of the music comes through.

The ATCs on good stands (in my room at least) sound great. The move to stand mounts worked for me. Good luck!
 

Thompsonuxb

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Both type of speaker will more or less have the same footprint.

Floorstanders do not guarantee more bass so it is down to preference.

The CM8's are a nice size being compact floorstanders and will look neater than a large pair of stand mounts on stands imo.

They are well made and solid so should not cause problems with bass - you have a decent room and good amplification so - on paper and in my opinion would be a good match.

It really depends on what you want.

Out of curiosity what's wrong with the sound you are currently getting from the Rx6's?
 

stevee1966

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Thompsonuxb said:
The CM8's are a nice size being compact floorstanders and will look neater than a large pair of stand mounts on stands imo.

They are well made and solid so should not cause problems with bass - you have a decent room and good amplification so - on paper and in my opinion would be a good match.

It really depends on what you want.

Out of curiosity what's wrong with the sound you are currently getting from the Rx6's?

It's difficult to put my finger on but there's something that i don't feel is quite right about the RX6's - maybe i'm expecting too much. At times i feel they're a bit muddy and the separation of instruments isn't quite there. I bought them to replace B&W 685's which i liked, hence my thinking of getting back on the B&W bandwagon.

Though having said that, this morning i put on a newly bought Riverside cd, and began to fall back in love with them. I only planned to listen to one track before i went to work but was still crashed in my chair half an hour later - everything just sounded right with this album.

I'm going to try to get some auditioning done and compare the RX6's next to some other options, though not sure i will be able to home demo which may be the problem. I thought the RX6's sounded great when i auditioned them but not so much in my own room.

I love the look of the PM1 stand mount speakers, equally for the floor stander then the CM8 is a good choice with it's smaller footprint, and i really like the looks of the 804 Diamonds (again a smaller footprint, but that may be pushing my luck a little too much explaining the cost to the missus) but at the end of the day it's got to be about the sound quality, and if the speakers i've listed (or others) don't give me that wow factor then i suppose it's not worth the extra bucks and i should stick to what i've got.

I do like spending though !!!!!
 

Richard Allen

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stevee1966 said:
Thompsonuxb said:
The CM8's are a nice size being compact floorstanders and will look neater than a large pair of stand mounts on stands imo.

They are well made and solid so should not cause problems with bass - you have a decent room and good amplification so - on paper and in my opinion would be a good match.

It really depends on what you want.

Out of curiosity what's wrong with the sound you are currently getting from the Rx6's?

It's difficult to put my finger on but there's something that i don't feel is quite right about the RX6's - maybe i'm expecting too much. At times i feel they're a bit muddy and the separation of instruments isn't quite there. I bought them to replace B&W 685's which i liked, hence my thinking of getting back on the B&W bandwagon.

Though having said that, this morning i put on a newly bought Riverside cd, and began to fall back in love with them. I only planned to listen to one track before i went to work but was still crashed in my chair half an hour later - everything just sounded right with this album.

I'm going to try to get some auditioning done and compare the RX6's next to some other options, though not sure i will be able to home demo which may be the problem. I thought the RX6's sounded great when i auditioned them but not so much in my own room.

I love the look of the PM1 stand mount speakers, equally for the floor stander then the CM8 is a good choice with it's smaller footprint, and i really like the looks of the 804 Diamonds (again a smaller footprint, but that may be pushing my luck a little too much explaining the cost to the missus) but at the end of the day it's got to be about the sound quality, and if the speakers i've listed (or others) don't give me that wow factor then i suppose it's not worth the extra bucks and i should stick to what i've got.

I do like spending though !!!!!

FWIW, I think that generally, a good standmount will out-perform an equivalent priced floorstander in most situations.

To give an example, 1 of the previous posters opted for ATC SCM11s and got great results. I believe that the sound from a standmounter is more articulate probably due to the fact that you trade bass weight for agility and definition.

That's not saying that your floorstanders are in any way sloppy in their presentation though. It's just that I have never found a floorstander that is as articulate in its presentation as the equivalent standmounter. This where the likes of EB1 and 2 score over equivalent floorstanders. Just seems to be the nature of the beast IMO and I include all brands in that statement.
 

CnoEvil

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Richard Allen said:
FWIW, I think that generally, a good standmount will out-perform an equivalent priced floorstander in most situations.

To give an example, 1 of the previous posters opted for ATC SCM11s and got great results. I believe that the sound from a standmounter is more articulate probably due to the fact that you trade bass weight for agility and definition.

That's not saying that your floorstanders are in any way sloppy in their presentation though. It's just that I have never found a floorstander that is as articulate in its presentation as the equivalent standmounter. This where the likes of EB1 and 2 score over equivalent floorstanders. Just seems to be the nature of the beast IMO and I include all brands in that statement.

This works if you already own decent stands. Once you take into account good stands (often expensive ones from the speaker manufacturer themselves), it skews things a bit for Standmounts in the £800-£1800 range (where a stand is quite a big percentage of the total cost)...good generic stands can be in the region of £200-£400)
 

stevee1966

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CnoEvil said:
This works if you already own decent stands. Once you take into account good stands (often expensive ones from the speaker manufacturer themselves), it skews things a bit for Standmounts in the £800-£1800 range (where a stand is quite a big percentage of the total cost)...good generic stands can be in the region of £200-£400)

B&W PM1 stand mount speakers are around the £2,000 mark but then they want another £400 on top for matching stands - which i think is taking liberties but companies obviously realise that many consumers will tend to match their speakers to their corresponding stands if the option is available.
 

Thompsonuxb

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I doubt many if us could tell the difference between a floorstander against a standnount on stands with our eyes closed.

It boils down to wether or not you can stand the sight of iron scaffolding in your living space.

I know I can't but I like compact floorstanders. 17cm wide under a metre tall not too fussed about its depth.

Just go by preference.
 

Kefref

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I would strongly suggest before you go replacing your speakers that you first try moving the position of them....sounds like you are not giving them room enough to breathe...and that the muddy bottom end you are experiencing may well be as a result of poor speaker or seating position. Even a small tweak can make a massive difference. Try moving the speakers out from the back and side walls, and moving your listening position. also look at anything else in the room that could be moved or relocated that may be causing an issue.

An alternative if this does not work is to audition some other kit to see if you can track down the weak link. I do remember listening to a set of Monitor Audio floor standers a fair while back when auditioning a new amp, and was really rather unimpressed.

I have my kef 104/2 's in a room around 3.5 wide by around 5metres long by about 3 metres high and they sound awesome. but are located 50cm from back wall, 50cm from side wall and have plenty space to kick loose.

Dont make any rash decisions, explore all avenues first...i was getting a problem with muddy bottom end and changing from silver coated speaker cable to a larger gauge pure copper cable helped no end. What i am saying i think is people are often very quick to blame the speakers, when more often than not there can be another culprit.

Personally if i was convinced that speakers were the culprit, i would not go to smaller boxes, i would go better quality floor standers.....IF AND ONLY IF i was sure my front end was not to blame!
 
stevee1966 said:
Thompsonuxb said:
The CM8's are a nice size being compact floorstanders and will look neater than a large pair of stand mounts on stands imo.

They are well made and solid so should not cause problems with bass - you have a decent room and good amplification so - on paper and in my opinion would be a good match.

It really depends on what you want.

Out of curiosity what's wrong with the sound you are currently getting from the Rx6's?

It's difficult to put my finger on but there's something that i don't feel is quite right about the RX6's - maybe i'm expecting too much. At times i feel they're a bit muddy and the separation of instruments isn't quite there. I bought them to replace B&W 685's which i liked, hence my thinking of getting back on the B&W bandwagon.

Though having said that, this morning i put on a newly bought Riverside cd, and began to fall back in love with them. I only planned to listen to one track before i went to work but was still crashed in my chair half an hour later - everything just sounded right with this album.

I'm going to try to get some auditioning done and compare the RX6's next to some other options, though not sure i will be able to home demo which may be the problem. I thought the RX6's sounded great when i auditioned them but not so much in my own room.

I love the look of the PM1 stand mount speakers, equally for the floor stander then the CM8 is a good choice with it's smaller footprint, and i really like the looks of the 804 Diamonds (again a smaller footprint, but that may be pushing my luck a little too much explaining the cost to the missus) but at the end of the day it's got to be about the sound quality, and if the speakers i've listed (or others) don't give me that wow factor then i suppose it's not worth the extra bucks and i should stick to what i've got.

I do like spending though !!!!!

Stevee

With your room size and circumstances, I would look at compact floorstanders. To that end, it would be hard to beat Totem Arros. They are stunning and a good upgrade to the MAs. They'll also play music happily close to the wall and very descreet.
 

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