Why tower mains?

[Exit]

Why do people buy expensive full range main speakers, such as towers, if you are using them in a HT setup? Wouldn’t it be better to buy smaller mains that go down to about 60Hz to cover an 80 Hz crossover and then divert the money saved into a better subwoofer? Are the towers used by critical listeners for stereo music without the subwoofer?

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Are the towers used by critical listeners for stereo music without the subwoofer?

Yes. (In fact, some of us have towers with sufficient bass not to require a sub at all.)

 

[darien87]

Plus, once you figure in the footprint of the stands that you have to place the bookshelf speakers on, you're not really saving any space with bookshelfs.

 

[3db]

Why do people buy expensive full range main speakers, such as towers, if you are using them in a HT setup? Wouldn’t it be better to buy smaller mains that go down to about 60Hz to cover an 80 Hz crossover and then divert the money saved into a better subwoofer? Are the towers used by critical listeners for stereo music without the subwoofer?

I have towers as my mains and I run them full range when listening to stereo. I may trade off some deep bass response but to my ears, I have a tighter more cohesive sound field running the mains full range than I would if I used them with a subwoofer. Sometimes, its difficult to dial in a sub with bookshelves for a seamless integration of sound. Its also easier to tell with music if the sub/mains are not dialed in properly then it is with movie material. Most towers can also play louder than their bookshelve brethren.

Those are my reasons for getting towers. I may have not gotten towers if my rig was strictly HT but since I rely on it 50/50 for music and HT, I went the tower route.

 

[Exit]

Thanks for the insight. I was just curious because I see towers in a lot of pictures of HT setups. I've got full range main speakers but they are not towers. I will have to get my subwoofer properly set up and try out music in both modes and see how it sounds best. The mains have 8" woofers but they don't seem to put out enough bass in a very large room.

 

[boboi]

Why do people buy expensive full range main speakers, such as towers, if you are using them in a HT setup? Wouldn’t it be better to buy smaller mains that go down to about 60Hz to cover an 80 Hz crossover and then divert the money saved into a better subwoofer? Are the towers used by critical listeners for stereo music without the subwoofer?

Also for aesthetic purposes- IMHO, towers overall just look more impressive, especially in larger rooms, but again, looks isn't everything.

 

[gus6464]

I have towers for my HT fronts but now I have a separate 2ch system altogether. When it comes time to upgrade the speakers on my 2ch system I will move them to the HT as they are small monitors and sell the HT setup. When I first bought my HT speakers I didn't really care for music but after a while I found myself listening more and more to music and less time with movies. Now I watch maybe 2-3 movies a week but listen to my 2ch system all the time so it's funny how that worked out. So to me I don't see the point of spending thousands on a full 5.1 setup that only gets used once in a while. But I would gladly spend ~$2000+ on a pair of speakers for my 2ch setup.

 

[j_garcia]

I am kind of the opposite - I have always listened to a lot of music, but my system sounds great with movies too so I watch more movies now. Why towers? Why not? The only time I would go with towers that have enough bass to be played on their own would be for a music only system. For HT a sub is a MUST....a good sub that is, and a good sub sure doesn't hurt for music also. I like having a large bookshelf that focuses on midrange and highs only. Towers are fine if they don't go so low that you are pretty much negating half of the speaker, so that means in and HT setup, I would choose towers that don't go much deeper than I need.

 

[Highbar]

I've got towers for my 2 channel system for music so I don't need the sub. I got tired of worrying about integrating it for music and readjusting the levels (I like the sub hot for movies). The towers go plenty low for music and sound great.

The now mini-bookshelf speakers I have for movies integrate well with the sub and when they get replaced it will be with a Paradigm bookshelf model.

So Towers = music
Bookshelfs = HT

T

 

[mike c]

even when crossedover at 80hz, towers will still have an advantage over bookshelves in producing bass frequencies. e.g. 600hz and below (up to the crossover point) on my towers are handled by the bass drivers ... that leaves my mid driver just the mid frequencies to work on.

on a bookshelf, everything below the high/mid crossover DOWN TO 80hz will be handled by ONE driver ...