For many years now, in our living room, we've use a pair of Salk Song Towers (in a 2.0 config, for music and TV). No complaints in terms of sound quality, but we'd like something physically smaller. The TV stand + TV + tower speakers ensemble is dominating the room, and we'd like to cozy up the room a bit, while maintaining (or improving!) sound quality.
In the interim, as an experiment, I have a pair of Paul Carmody's Speedsters that I built years ago. I removed the Song Towers, and put the Speedsters sideways on the TV stand. The speedsters are pretty small (only 6in wide), and I have an old plasma TV with a thick bezel, the speakers actually don't interfere with the TV picture at all.
The sound quality is acceptable, but both my wife and I have noticed a bit of a downgrade. But we like the the increased "feng shui" with the towers removed. So we'd like to keep this arrangement: bookshelf- or standmount-type speakers, on their side, sitting atop the TV stand. We can build or buy a way to raise the TV up higher, to accommodate speakers that are wider than the Speedsters.
I know most speakers will be compromised being put on their side... so I'm looking for speakers that will be least compromised in this position. As a starting point, I'm thinking about the Dennis Murphy/Philharmonic BMR: lots of positive feedback, that BMR midrange driver "should" help (?) with dispersion in a sideways arrangement, and the additional perk of being able to DIY. (DIY isn't a hard requirement, but I enjoy it, plus we can get exactly the finish we want.)
Open to any thoughts or ideas here: generally, how can we meet or exceed Song Tower performance in a physically smaller setup; and specifically, how much would the Phil BMR performance suffer being put on their sides as described above?
In the interim, as an experiment, I have a pair of Paul Carmody's Speedsters that I built years ago. I removed the Song Towers, and put the Speedsters sideways on the TV stand. The speedsters are pretty small (only 6in wide), and I have an old plasma TV with a thick bezel, the speakers actually don't interfere with the TV picture at all.
The sound quality is acceptable, but both my wife and I have noticed a bit of a downgrade. But we like the the increased "feng shui" with the towers removed. So we'd like to keep this arrangement: bookshelf- or standmount-type speakers, on their side, sitting atop the TV stand. We can build or buy a way to raise the TV up higher, to accommodate speakers that are wider than the Speedsters.
I know most speakers will be compromised being put on their side... so I'm looking for speakers that will be least compromised in this position. As a starting point, I'm thinking about the Dennis Murphy/Philharmonic BMR: lots of positive feedback, that BMR midrange driver "should" help (?) with dispersion in a sideways arrangement, and the additional perk of being able to DIY. (DIY isn't a hard requirement, but I enjoy it, plus we can get exactly the finish we want.)
Open to any thoughts or ideas here: generally, how can we meet or exceed Song Tower performance in a physically smaller setup; and specifically, how much would the Phil BMR performance suffer being put on their sides as described above?