Bookshelf vs Tower Speakers: How to Choose the Right Speaker for Your Room?
Choosing the right speakers can make or break your home audio or home theatre experience. Whether you are building a two-channel stereo system for music listening or an immersive surround sound setup for movies, selecting the right speaker type for your room size, budget and listening preferences is crucial.
With bookshelf speakers and floorstanding (or tower) speakers being the two most popular options in premium home audio, many buyers often wonder which one is the better choice.
Whether it is a two-channel amplifier, multi-channel AV receiver, CD player or speakers, making the right choice is vital for achieving the best sound quality and immersive home audio experience.
Having said that, one of the most important components of a system is the loudspeaker. It is this part in the whole chain that converts electrical energy to sound. With two types of speaker form factors available – bookshelf and floorstander (or tower) – what should one choose? In this blog, PRO FX brings you the pros and cons of bookshelf speakers and floorstanding speakers to help you decide the best option for your home audio or home theatre setup.
What Are Bookshelf Speakers?
Firstly, let us understand what bookshelf speakers can and cannot do.
Bookshelves are primarily meant to sit on shelves, stands or a table/counter. They are generally compact in size and are suitable for rooms that are smaller or if they are to be used in apartments and compact home theatre rooms.
Advantages of Bookshelf Speakers
Though small, some well-designed bookshelves from reputed companies are capable of producing impressive sound, more so when it comes to the mid and high frequencies. The mid and high frequencies are where most of the detail in the music is and bookshelves can give a really good music listening experience with excellent clarity and detail.
Bookshelves are generally more budget-friendly as compared to floorstanding speakers. This makes them a good option if one is starting out with a hi-fi setup or entry-level stereo system from scratch.
Limitations of Bookshelf Speakers You Should Know
However, there are a couple of things to be considered while opting for bookshelves.
The first is that the more inexpensive pairs will not be able to produce as much deep bass as floorstanders. So, for listeners who prefer punchy, bass-heavy music, bookshelves may not really serve the purpose. In this scenario, bookshelf speakers may have to be paired with a subwoofer to get good low-frequency effects and deeper bass response.
Secondly, bookshelf speakers will not be able to fill larger rooms with enough sound for a good listening experience.
What Are Floorstanding Speakers and Their Advantages?
Let us now understand floorstanding speakers. As the name suggests, these speakers are large boxes that are directly placed on the floor.
Due to their larger size as compared to bookshelf speakers, they are able to house dedicated speaker drivers like woofers/mid-basses, midrange drivers and tweeters, sometimes even super tweeters in the same cabinet. Since each frequency band is handled by separate speaker drivers, the sound tends to be far better, more detailed and immersive.
What will particularly stand out in floorstanding speakers is the bass frequency response, and the need for a subwoofer is generally eliminated in well-designed speakers from reputed speaker brands.
If the listening room or dedicated home theatre room is larger, tower speakers will be able to fill the room with sound without having to crank up the volume on the amplifier/AV receiver too much. Floorstanding speakers are generally recommended for home theatre setups since they provide the power and immersive surround sound experience that bookshelf speakers cannot do.
Things to Consider Before Buying Floorstanding Speakers
While floorstanding speakers can be impressive, there are certain aspects to keep in mind before investing in them.
Firstly, being large cabinets, they obviously occupy a lot of space in a room. So, room size is the first aspect that needs to be considered before buying floorstanding speakers.
Secondly, being bigger and having multiple components, they are generally far more expensive than bookshelf speakers.
Moreover, room acoustics and placement need to be given importance. If not, even the best floorstanding speakers can sound poor and ruin the listening experience. When it comes to the bass, one has to keep in mind where the sound port is located. If the bass port is at the rear, the speakers will have to be carefully placed away from the rear wall. Placing them too close to the rear wall will result in boomy bass and compromised sound quality.
What Kind of Speaker Should You Choose?
It pays to consider several factors before purchasing speakers: room size, budget, and sound preference.
When it comes to room size, a large speaker in a small room could sound boomy as it produces too much energy for the space. Bookshelf speakers are better suited to smaller rooms.
Secondly, if the buyer’s choice of music is predominantly vocals or wind instruments, or genres like jazz, where bass is not critical, bookshelf speakers are recommended over tower speakers.
However, in cases of genres like Rock, Electronic Dance Music, Pop, Bollywood etc., where deep bass is a must, then they would find a tower speaker more to their liking.
The next important aspect is amplifier matching. If a buyer already has an amplifier, its output power often determines (or limits) the kind of speaker they can pair with it. For example, amplifier with power ratings of less than 60 watt often should only consider using them with bookshelf speakers. Larger speakers need bigger and more expensive amplifiers.
So, in conclusion, bookshelf speakers and floorstanding speakers can sound great when matched to the room and the rest of the audio equipment.
PRO FX’s Role
PRO FX retails both bookshelf and tower speakers from internationally reputed brands like KEF, JBL, Sonodyne, Polk, Theory and Revel.
Moreover, our expertise lies in the fact that we can recommend the right kind of speaker for the customer’s requirement and the rest of the equipment in possession, ensuring the best possible stereo audio and home theatre experience.
Have more questions? Leave us a message to connect with our team for personalized expert advice.