bookshelfs sitting on subs for left & right fronts instead of towers?

[fredejo]

why do some people have what looks like a bookshelf with the tweet & mid sitting on top of a seperate powered sub for their front left & right channels over having a tower with it all built into one? i have seen high end brands like mcintosh, etc do that. whats the advantage? & do they still have to have a 3rd powered sub that plays bass for everything or do they just have the 2 subs up front on the left & right?

 

[korgoth]

like the rbh's? t-2's etc.. yeah its just 2 subs.

there is no real advantage, other than they are designed to fit with eachother so it might sound a little smoother.

but with the rbh's i saw, you can just buy the top part and use a different sub as well.

 

[sts9fan]

With something like the Wilson Watt/Puppys the top tweet and mid drivers are in a sealed encloser while the bass unit is a vented box. Also many of the ones you speak of are fullrange speakers while most floorstanders are not thus needing a sub.

 

[tbewick]

I've seen high-end speakers that look like that - B&W 801's, KEF 105's etc. I certainly don't know much about speakers, but perhaps it could be to reduce colouration of the mid/high-end. By having the tweeter and mid-range driver in smaller cabinets, more suited to their frequency range, this maybe helps to reduce colouration. It could also help in terms of dispersivity, because the tweeter and mid-range are not cluttered up by the large bass driver cabinet.

As to why floorstanders don't have this design, it could simply be an issue of cost. It costs more to have three high-quality cabinets rather than one big cabinet.

 

[j_garcia]

In a floorstander, the mid and tweeter can be chambered to separate them from the volume the bass driver(s) use. IMO, they do this because subs require different placement than the midbass and highs.