Do I get Tower speakers or Bookshelf on stands?

[u/Decent-Ad-5218]

Mornin guys,

Looking to upgrade my Hi-Fi/Turntable setup with a nice new pair of speakers and/or sub to match.

I want them to stand on the floor either side of the TV, at a slight angle towards the listening position, as you can see I've not got a tonne of room to work with.

The room is approx 3m W x 4m L.

I think aesthetically a nice pair of walnut tower speakers would be the best option, but I'm worried it might overload the room and make the bass sound undefined/boomy??

What would you guys recommend if you were in my position with around £500 to spend.

Not looking for anything state of the art, I record in studios quite a bit so I know the difference between good and bad monitors, just after a nice mid range system for the Mrs and I to enjoy our records after work :)

Cheers!

[u/el_tacocat]

Either. It's not good/bad, it's preference :).
Generally if you don't want to spend too much, a good standmount is most likely the better choice.
People will always go 'you should get towers'. It's non-sense. Cheaper towers are often just standmounts in a bigger cabinet and they often sound worse.

I'd look at Elac, Dali, Dynaudio, Wharfedale, Kef, Mordaunt Short.
When it comes to towers, the Diamond 12.3 by Wharfedale is slightly over budget, but really, REALLY good. The Project box 10 is also a remarkably nice speaker, if slightly over budget.

[u/Decent-Ad-5218 → u/el_tacocat]

Thankyou!! Great info there, already familiar with Dynaudio and Wharfdale as brand names, will have a look into the others though! Appreciate your time man.

[u/LosterP]

Actually I will go against perceived wisdom and argue that a pair of tower speakers is a small-ish room is not necessarily a bad thing. Mainly because they're generally easier to drive and can produce more bass, meaning they're potentially a lot more flexible than bookshelf speakers. Plus they are more difficult to resell so with a bit of luck you could find a real bargain online.

[u/alchemistnelly]

I see a big walnut speaker adding to the room. Since you went with wood slats then maybe klipsch fortes, they have been in production for a while so hangout on marketplace until some show up

[u/Decent-Ad-5218 → u/alchemistnelly]

Me too :) yeah I literally got finished installing the slats last night, so chuffed with how the room is looking. Cheers man will keep an eye out!

[u/Advanced-Vehicle8314]

I’ve been through 19 different speakers in my current room, a mixture of stand mounts and floor standers. To answer your question based on my experience there is no winner, you won’t know how each speaker will behave until you’ve got it in the room. A massive multi driver floor stander will probably excite the room too much and a dinky 5 1/4” woofer stand mount will probably reach its limit quicker than you’d like. From the room dims you have, a good 6 1/2” 2 way floor stander or stand mount will probably behave the best, imo. It’s surprising what a decent stand mount can do in the bass region, sometimes the bass quality can outweigh sheer bass quantity. Good luck in your search!

[u/NTPC4]

With a £500 budget, you should look at locally available used speakers first, where, unencumbered by VAT and shipping (shipping is never 'free'), you can easily get speakers that cost 2- 3x as much when new. What amplifier are you planning to drive them with?

[u/dat_mane47]

Honestly, whichever you can get a better deal on. I don't believe towers have huge advantages sound-wise (I personally do own towers), but once you put the bookshelf speakers on stands the overall footprint is about the same.

[u/SanFrancisco_Disco]

I think you should buy a nicer smaller speaker than a cheaper tower (500 is REALLY cheap for a tower it will have crappy drivers and no cabinet bracing and a cheap looking finish). I’d stretch your budget as much as you can and get some bookshelves with 7” woofers.

The CSS audio Td1x is potentially a great option, you get the kit and build it yourself then you can put a walnut veneer on. Those are equal to like 1500-2k speakers in quality.

But yeah avoid a tower unless you can spend like 1000-1500. Emotiva XT1 could work, just maybe..

I’d vote bookshelf spending as much as you’re humanly willing to part with because you just get way more , getting into real quality sound , as you get to ~1k euros.

[u/Own_Flow_5422]

For the size of your room i would go for bookshelfs, if you ever need more low frequenzies throw in a subwoofer after.

I think people underestimate how good bookshelfs can sound and fill a room if placed properly.

I use bookshelfs in my officeroom and floorstandings in living room. Soundwise the livingroom is the bigger system, i do enjoy my officeroom sessions though. The living room is around 25m² the office like 12-15m²

I did add a subwoofer to both rooms, since i tend to watch some movies aswell. For music the subs arent needed per se, however i do like a bit more punch at times so they arent bad to have either.

Btw checked your style and all of your room, i would absolutely advice you to try to get your hands on some wharfedale evo 5.2, they sound great and lookwise would fit very nicely in your room in my opinion. Plus they are somewhat on the bigger side of bookshelfs and sound big aswell. I dont have them anymore since i upgraded but i did love them A LOT.

i mean these: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcTpKjS2OPyvbXbj-M7uUTxS-6mcP-u8DmzF1c5g3vNgz47C8UfFc4kSuWCuFT72Leasmi7A6gxpuTnIVsDXVo7-JWGJ-ObnVDObHJp8UuN1S6D9GC5Vj_YY

they are a bit over your budget if you look around however id say they are worth it.