Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners nice articule on Bookshelf vs Floor standing

I find the second comment on that page that bookshelf speakers "sound" better than floorstanders just ludicrous. There is no doubt speaker selection is a very subjective process, however, it has been written about many times before by people who know much more about this than I do is that whether it be music or movies, the bulk of sound comes in that midrange area of 500-4000HZ in which case with the multiple drivers of a floor standing speaker it allows one or more of those drivers to be assigned specifically to handle that particular frequency range, whereas, bookshelf speakers, aside from their limited enclosure size and number of drivers and types, in many cases, are essentially a rather large trade-off in that area of sound. If, by chance, the midrange sounds goods it is usually at the sacrifice of bass extension. Generally speaking and from my experience, with bookshelf speakers, you can't have it both ways and we are not even talking about the difference in efficiency and SPL capability.

I also just can't get my head around that some manufacturers will offer bookshelf speakers that cost $5000 or more a pair. I am sure some of them sound very good, however, the laws of physics still prevail and they are still limited in their sound capabilities, regardless of the manufacturer and/or its reputation. In my case, I have owned many speakers over the years both bookshelf and floorstanders culminating in my present M80s, whether it be movies or music, for the time being anyway, my quest has ended.