Tarxman said:
I'm curious on people's thoughts. I always had the notion that only a floorstanding speaker would deliver a detailed, full range sound, but admittedly have been very surprised with the sound I get out of my Jamo C803 bookshelf speakers. How do you feel about what you prefer and why?
1. A small to modest size so called 'bookshelf' speaker, or if you will a 'standmount' will not be able to transcend the laws of physics and offer a full bandwidth sound on it's own.
Of necessity, given the limited size, it is likely to be a two way design, hence a bass mid + tweeter.
If you want to increase bass extension, you can a) fit a very long excursion bass/mid driver, but then when it is working hard in the bass, it will introduce intermodulation distortion in the midrange, or b) you can use as has been suggested, a dedicated sub.
The difficulty with a 2.1 arrangement, is that spatial detail and ambience is mainly conveyed through low frequency information, and in stereo, so when using a sub where the bass is effectively mono'd, this sense of natural space, such as for argument sake as heard in a large cathedral on organ works, is lost. Effectively one needs stereo subs, and hence you are now up with four boxes, not two.
2. To my eyes, (and it is only my aesthetic opinon of course!) a cuboid or rectangular, flat sided wood veneered MDF box, mounted on angle iron, looks like it belongs in the 1950's aesthetically, and is definitely very 'legacy' considering the technology available for loudspeaker design and building in the 21st century. IMHO of course!
3. An properly engineered and designed 3 way speaker, can act as a 2 way, with an integrated sub, depending upon design and crossover points, and as you have a stereo pair, you effectively now have stereo subs as well. AND, only two 'boxes' required, not four, and no ugly stands in sight.
Accordingly, on both performance, aesthetic and space requirement grounds, I much prefer a pair of floor standing three ways, (preferably active) over a pair of sstandmount on stands, and the two subs additionally required to give a similar performance envelope.
Only my opinon of course, and obviously I'm biased, as that is what I have, but when I have a pair of three way active speakers with 10" bass drivers, with 500 watts RMS behind each one, and capable of giving a serious 20hz in room, separate subs are simply not necessary, and nor would I wish to put up with the aesthetic and physical clutter involved in a pair of standmount speakers, the stands themselves (most, but not all are ugly to my mind and very meccanoesque) and two subs. Simply to ugly and far too much clutter in a modest room IMHO.
As I say though, just my opinion and obviously others will have different viewpoints.
It's all good!
JB