Is my room too small for floor standing speakers?

Question

My room is 10 feet x 10 feet, in the shape of a square. It has very high ceilings, probablly somewhere between 12 and 16 feet.

Would floor standing speakers (towers) be wasted in a room this size? Am I better off spending the money on 'bookshelf' speakers and some nice stands instead?

Answer 1

See if someone can give a demo in your home to see if like the large ones.Then you decide.

Answer 2

Are you talking stereo or surround?  In your earlier question you wondered about surround.

If stereo, you want good sound, and you don't intend to get a subwoofer, floorstanding full range speakers are the way to go -- irrespective of room size (but you will probably find large speakers take over the room).

If you want surround -- as I said earlier -- go with small bookshelf speakers and a good sub. As to mounting, in a small room you can wall mount (no stands).

Mixing full range and mini speakers and a sub will work, but it's a waste of money and still has the "overfilling the room" effect.

That all said, speakers are a question of what works for YOU. You need to listen. Some people just don't like a small speaker / sub combination, others do. Audition speakers, preferably in a room of similar size (volume not width/length) to yours --- i.e. not at Best Buy or Circuit City or similar barn with bad rock blaring in the background.

Answer 3

Floor standing speakers are almost always better than bookself speakers in terms of performance due to improved bass response.  It's rare to find bookshelf speakers that can create frequencies below 40 Hz.

Answer 4

I have a room just like yours and I just bought Klipsch F-3 tower speakers and I love them.  Yes they take up space but they earn their space by providing amazing sound.  I wouldn't trade them for a bookshelf unit ever.

Answer 5

It all depends on what you want.

If you intend to use a set of bookshelf's and a sub woofer you may be replicating the benefits of a tower. I would recommend that you demo both types in a small room with the amp you intend to use. I would compare series to series in a manufacture. i.e. Klipsch RF-83 to RB-81,etc... I would also recommend that you look at a sub with the bookshelf system as a necessity and reinforcement with a tower set.  But you will be the judge of that not anyone here.

Do some critical listening. Just know that for the same money as a tower you can get a huge difference in performance from a bookshelf.