Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
This question is asked often. If the bookshelf and the floorstanding model are built with the same drivers and crossover, it's an easier comparison. You'll see many companies do this too. Paradigm comes to mind. Look at the Monitor 5 and the Monitor 7. Besides the $150-$200 price difference, the only the only difference between them is about $2 in particleboard and $2 in vinyl finish to make the cabinet taller. $150 for $4 in materials, not a bad business to be in.

Tone wise, there should be absolutely no difference in "brightness or dullness". The same drivers and crossover would be used. The biggest difference comes in the bass of course. Floorstanders can play lower. Sometimes this comes at the expense of "tightness" of bass, and transient response, but that would depend on the woofer used and how much larger the floorstander cabinet is.

Bookshelfs typically have better imaging - speakers will deliver better imaging and soundstaging in smaller cabinets. Smaller cabinets will also produce less edge diffraction that introduces irregularities in the response.

How much these differences are noticeable will depend on how well the designs are implemented. I really notice the smaller speakers do image better and have somewhat better soundstage, if everything else is kept the same.

For home theater, I always recommend bookshelf speakers if available, because they are almost always much cheaper than the towers, and offer as good or better performance in the mids and highs. A subwoofer should be used for home theater anyway.

For stereo music listening though, I still prefer floorstanders quite often. The extra bass presents a more complete musical experience to me. Integrating a subwoofer with bookshelfs would be pretty difficult - especially since a lot of good integrated amps and pre-amps don't come with LFE/Bass management controls. I don't think it would be impossible to get better performance with a sub and bookshelf speakers, but it would be very difficult to do it right.

For the same budget, however, as you mentioned, you'll often get much higher quality speakers. When I bought my Paradigm Studio 20's and I almost went with Monitor 7's for fronts. The studio 20's don't have as much bottom end, but it's enough for most music, and the midrange and highs are much better, as was imaging and soundstaging. To me, better sound quality was worth more than lower bass. I knew eventually I'd add a subwoofer anyway, if I really wanted to use it.

But I can see why some people would prefer the floorstanders. Include a pair of stands, and the prices aren't that different.
hi kex. this thread really confuses me. i thought you are more into floorstanders for music since it gives you more musical experience? how come your stereo music speakers are the paradigm 20's?