@Nytrex Note that with most active speakers you may need additional devices to connect them to your TV, and it may be inconvenient to control volume or switch them on/off - IME this can be a problem if not all household members are tech-savvy.
Also, a lot of cheaper active speakers have some audible hiss (though at 3,5m distance that shouldn't be a big problem), whereas this is not usually a problem when using passive speakers. If you're hiss-sensitive this is something worth investigating.
That's just a few things to consider. My advice would be to take ease-of-use into account when making your choice as well, not just (hypothetical) sound quality.
Regarding speaker size - note that the difference between a 6" woofer and 8" woofer of the same (active) loudspeaker model typically won't give you a lot more bass extension.
To illustrate, here's a comparison of the anechoic On-Axis response of JBL 306P MkII vs 308P MKII:
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And here's for Kali LP-6v2 vs Kali LP-8v2:
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As you can see, in both cases there's just a few Hz extra bass extension provided by an 8" woofer - IMHO not very significant, and in any case either size speaker would benefit from a subwoofer for full-range playback.
What you do usually gain with a bigger woofer, however, is the ability to play louder. Compare the 96dB SPL distortion and response linearity graphs for
Kali LP-6v2 vs
Kali LP-8v2 in EAC reviews and you will see that the 8" version has a bit less distortion at 96dB SPL (very loud) playback level and also less compression in the bass.
What this all means is that when on a budget it will be easier to get meaningful bass extension by adding a sub, but that a bigger speaker does make sense if you need louder playback levels (but again you'd need a sub for full-range playback). Of course the good thing is that you could always add a sub later on.
With passive speakers the difference in low frequency extension with different woofer sizes might be more significant (though I personally don't remember seeing that many passive budget bookshelf speakers with 8" woofers). E.g. if we compare an 8" active speaker (JBL 308P MKII) with a 6" passive speaker (Polk XT20), we see that JBL would probably go down to about 37-40Hz in-room, whereas the Polk would play down to about 45-50Hz in-room - this is absolutely a more significant difference in bass extension:
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Next, note that whichever speakers you end up choosing, your room will basically destroy their anechoic bass response. The way to mitigate this for a single listening position (without requiring very expensive room treatment) is to:
- Integrate a subwoofer (to avoid SBIR dips in the response, add low frequency extension, and increase system maximum SPL)
- Optimize placement of speakers, sub and listening position (to avoid SBIR/LBIR dips in the response)
- Use room correction EQ (to remove remaining resonances/peaks from the response)
No reasonably-priced speaker will be able to go around this, I'm afraid. Very expensive full-range cardioid-radiation speakers like D&D 8C, Kii Three etc. may be a different story (to an extent), but there's no point discussing those in this context.
While I understand a sub is out of your budget at the moment, it is perhaps still worth mentioning that there's a few objective reasons to consider adding a subwoofer down the line if one wishes to optimize for sound quality:
- You can get more low frequency extension for cheaper (than trying to do it with speakers alone)
- It helps you overcome some acoustic problems with proper placement and integration (mainly SBIR related response dips/nulls)
- It allows your speakers to play a bit louder (since it takes over the bass, which is where bookshelf speakers struggle)
Of course, if you're just starting out integrating a sub will seem intimidating - which is perfectly understandable and there's absolutely no need to jump into that straight away.
My intention with this post was simply to illustrate that a slightly bigger speaker can't really replace a subwoofer, and that adding a subwoofer will benefit almost any size speaker (because it solves a few other problems).
Hope you find some of this information interesting!
