This weekend I was able to spend about an hour listening to my Jamo C 601 bookshelf speakers in the 14 x 14 room with the 10 foot ceiling. Hard wood floors and currently no furniture in it.

I was absolutely stunned to feel the room shake when playing some Three Dog Night tunes at a moderate audio level from my Qinpu A3 tube/solid state hybrid amp. The entire room was filled with audio even though I did not have any stands to use. Propped them on the floor about 8 feet apart and toed them up about a half inch which gave a real concert hall effect though with a slightly boomy bass, even when they were a foot away from the wall. I then mounted them on a couple of 2 foot tall boxes and I noted the bass became tighter but was still shockingly strong. The sound stage became more expansive and open as a result of the height.

Now I am very confused. I have never heard a small bookshelf speaker behave like a small tower before. My only other experience owning small speakers was a pair of Yamaha NS4 circa 1981 and then JBL 2500's in the mid 1990's. Neither of those could even come close to sounding like these Jamo's in any way, shape or form at all. None.

This being the case, I have to wonder what the differences i.e. pros and cons are to bookshelf speakers and towers. I was thinking that I should buy a pair of towers for my next main speakers to use after my Mirage OM 10's bite the dust but now I am wondering if I can achieve the same objective by using a high quality bookshelf.

Can anyone explain the best and worst points of each kind of speaker?