Minimalist Floorstanders - Totem Arro...any others.

[ToxicFrog]

I'm looking to go to floorstanders (mainly for the convenience to me of not needing speaker stands). But I want some tiny towers. I like the Totem Arros. Are there any others I should consider - nothing too pricey (<$1000) or fancy, just simple and sweet, used 50/50 for HT and music.

Thanks.

 

[j_garcia]

What exactly is tiny? Arro dimensions: 133 x 850 x 175 mm (5.13 x 33.5 x 6.75" approx.).

 

[ToxicFrog]

I'ld say tiny means those that are on the smaller side of the floorstanding spectrum. One's with small footprints and profiles. Like the Totem Arro, which I think is one of the smallest quality floorstanders, unlike its big brother the Forest or Wind.

 

[emorphien]

Arros are small, in fact for their sound almost all Totem speakers are small IMO. The Arro doesn't have tons of bass and really won't be suitable for home theater IMO. Depending on your music and listening preferences I understand it can be a phenominal music speaker. I'm quite enamored with the Rainmaker right now.

Will you be considering a subwoofer?

 

[billnchristy]

Athena makes a narrow tower with 3 3.5" powered, a tweet and 5 passive 3.5" 480 a pair...never heard them but just found them when researching the under 1k system thread.

 

[silversurfer]

KEF iQ5 are small towers. Sound pretty good too.

 

[j_garcia]

I'd say you might take a look at the NHT Classic 4, EPOS ELS303, and Mordaunt Short 906 The small towers that I heard that I really liked are out of your price range by quite a bit are the Vienna Acoustics Motzart - also musical, but may not be ideally suited to HT. The Mordaunt Short 900 series has a good balance between both music and movies.

The Ascend Acoustics CMT340SE can be purchased with a matching stand that allows it to appear as a tower.

 

[Nick250]

The Ascend Acoustics CMT340SE can be purchased with a matching stand that allows it to appear as a tower.

That was my first thought.

Nick

 

[ToxicFrog]

Arros are small, in fact for their sound almost all Totem speakers are small IMO. The Arro doesn't have tons of bass and really won't be suitable for home theater IMO. Depending on your music and listening preferences I understand it can be a phenominal music speaker. I'm quite enamored with the Rainmaker right now.

Will you be considering a subwoofer?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll be checking out all of them.

Should have mentioned that smaller sound is not an issue for me. In fact, I prefer to my music and HT at lower volumes.

 

[Nick250]

In that case, you might consider the B&W 602.5.

Nick

 

[GreenJelly]

B&W 602.5's have the smallest footprint of the lot, and are great on base.

Very nice speakers, though a bigger footprint. Still would recommend a Subwoofer for HT, but its not 100% needed.

Mike

 

[JonBaker99]

Mirage V2 Floorstanding speakers sound great and are incredibly small. Got a pretty good review from Audioholics as well. I'm thinking about grabbing a set for the bedroom.

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/loudspeakers/Omnistatv2FSLoudspeakersp1.php

 

[3db]

With or without sub

I'm looking to go to floorstanders (mainly for the convenience to me of not needing speaker stands). But I want some tiny towers. I like the Totem Arros. Are there any others I should consider - nothing too pricey (<$1000) or fancy, just simple and sweet, used 50/50 for HT and music.

Thanks.

I have a pair of PSB Image T45s that do music really REALLy well and it does HT good also but it does need a sub for HT. There is bass there for HT but it doesn't have the impact like a sub has.

 

[Ryan8886]

Athena makes a narrow tower with 3 3.5" powered, a tweet and 5 passive 3.5" 480 a pair...never heard them but just found them when researching the under 1k system thread.

Look at the Athena AS-F2.2...about $500 a pair. I admit to being relatively new to this stuff, however I enjoy their sound a lot for music and find them good for HT as well. They are ID so you can't audition in a store usually, however I've never regretted my decision to go with them...and you can send them back if you don't like them. Research them a bit and you should find some pretty positive reviews!

 

[drobbins]

I'd say you might take a look at the NHT Classic 4, EPOS ELS303, and Mordaunt Short 906

I'd also suggest looking for some discounted or used NHT ST4 speakers. This is the predecessor to the NHT Classic 4. I don't like the Classic 4's all-aluminum drivers - doesn't sound good to me. The ST4 is a more interesting design as well (SB3 monitor with integrated woofer in its own isolated internal cabinet.) and I think it yields better results.

I also think the NHT Classic 2 ($400/pr) are good, but those are monitors, not floorstanders. The Classic 2 is a 2-way with aluminum tweeter but polypropylene main driver.

-Daniel