Do you have tower or bookshelf speakers in your main system?

[kolestonin]

I own a pair of tower speakers and I am not using a sub.

I was always curious though on how many people use tower speakers as I personally don't know anyone. I lived in 3 different european countries, visited a lot of households and never saw a pair of tower speakers in any of them.
What do you use/prefer?

Fell free to comment on your personal experience, past choices, how you found out you prefer one over the other solution or anything you like. It might also be interesting to post in which continent you live.

ps: I wanted to add another 2 options for bookshelf's + more than 4 subs and towers + more than 4 subs but I couldn't add more poll options. I believe these should extremely rare cases though.

 

[kyuu]

Well I use in-walls now, but if I wasn't I'd definitely be using towers. For a system that's not going to live on a desk, I don't personally see the point of using bookshelves over towers. Towers have more interior volume and typically larger and/or more drivers which are an advantage whether you're using a sub or not. And they don't take up more floor space than a bookshelf plus stand.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I’ve had towers in the past, but currently use bookshelf speakers with subwoofer. IMO bookshelves offer the best bang for the buck if you use a sub. A two-way crossover is less complex and easier to design, and it’s easy to get a rigid cabinet for a smallish bookshelf.

Personally, I have met very few people my whole life who have a hi-fi system of any kind. Can probably count them on one hand with fingers left over.

Even worse, my work takes me to a lot of private residences of all income levels – a bit over 200 homes since 2020. I think I’ve only seen 2-3 HT systems the whole time. Kinda disheartening.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[SuicideSquid]

Totem Forest towers + KEF Sub for mains, bookshelves for centre and surrounds, in-ceiling speakers for atmos height channels.

I'm very curious about the person who voted Bookshelves + 4 Subs. Troll vote perhaps?

 

[MattHooper]

floor standing speakers (Joseph audio perspective 2 and Thiel 2.7).

But I also own some bookshelf speakers that I absolutely love - Spendor S3/5, as well as some old 2-way Thiels. I used to have more stand mounted speakers at my bidding (eg Waveform, MBL). And I still sometimes listen to my Hales Transcendence 1 stand mounted speakers for stereo music (the normally they are doing Home Theatre duty).

I love throwing stand-mounted speakers into my system sometimes. It’s a great place to visit. But fuller range floorstanding loudspeakers always feel like “ going home.”

 

[kolestonin]

I'm very curious about the person who voted Bookshelves + 4 Subs. Troll vote perhaps?

I think 4 is a kind of a 'golden number' as a cure of room modes.
And If you already have two, and you can allow it, you just look for 2 more.
So I would not be surprised if there will be more votes

 

[Chrispy]

I use subs with my system with towers as well as several systems with book shelf/standmounts of various sizes. Prefer the placement options and deeper bass potential.

 

[dualazmak]

My main is 3-way bookshelf, i.e. woofer + midrange + tweeter, and I add L&R subwoofers as well as L&R super-tweeters. Therefore, the total is 5-way 10-driver SP system; all of them are in fully active setup, each of them is dedicatedly/directly driven by one of the multiple amplifiers.

You may find the details of the latest setup of PC-DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active stereo audio rig in my post #931 on my project thread.

Spoiler

 

[RayDunzl]

MartinLogan reQuests driven by Krells for attentive listening

and adjacent cheap 15" subs though the mains actually go lower

With JBL LSR 308 booskshelfs on top of the subs for daily inattentive use

All DSP'd

Can't see a way to vote all that above.

 

[kyuu]

MartinLogan reQuests driven by Krells for attentive listening

and adjacent cheap 15" subs though the mains actually go lower

With JBL LSR 308 booskshelfs on top of the subs for daily inattentive use

All DSP'd

Can't see a way to vote all that above.

Seems like floorstanders + subs? I don't think your JBLs qualify as your "main" system.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Towers without sub for the dedicated listening room main system, bookshelf on stands with one sub for second (much smaller room) near field system.

 

[OldHvyMec]

So I would not be surprised if there will be more votes

Everyone I know starts with a pair, gets worn out from moving them, and finally figures out location isn't the problem as much as the number
of locations, is. It's pretty hard to mess up a DBA even if you try. 3-way driver cabinets located mid-corner to corner on 2-4 walls always works
in a standard rectangle/square (ish) room.

Of course, if the room is huge sometimes a simple kitty corner with no subs works great too using Nearfield.

Personally, I use TWO bass columns (60-250hz), 2-4 subs (60hz <), and two mains. I don't care if the mains are a stand mount or 48-84" tall floor
standing. Just about anything works with my sub/bass system. I prefer small planars/ribbons to any other drivers. LS, Hybrid LS, or TMBs are all
fine. MTMs or BTMB kind of suck, unless they have at least 2 mids on either side of a single tweeter. I don't like my head in a vice and I like to be
able to stand up and still enjoy the music.

When guests are over and they are moving around I tip the speaker back about 15 degrees especially if there is any dancing going on.
I mover them close to the wall and tip them back just a bit. I have tape markers on the floor for both positions and I use door frame wedges
made from oak. 5-10 minutes depending on the speaker weight.

I used to put up a barricade for the ONE nitwit that likes to tough $hit. You know the buddy that brings a buddy, that guy.

Regards

 

[wadude]

Still running a pair of original Advents raised up by the fireplace hearth. The only sub is a little Fostex to fill in under the humble flatscreen speakers. I don’t watch TV through the stereo.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Given the binary distinction between tower and bookshelf speakers, I am running 3 large "towers", 2 small "towers" and 3 subs.

 

[Waxx]

Diy towers that go low enough to not need a sub. But i got many speakers, from very small bookshelfs to wardrobe size old style towers. Each has his place...