0:03 Hey guys, welcome back to the One Bit
0:05 Podcast. Uh, today we're going to be
0:07 discussing bookshelves versus floor
0:08 standers and which may be a better
0:11 choice for you. But before that, a
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1:00 cord from Wireworld. And at the end of
1:02 this video, we'll tell you what you can
1:04 do to win it. But on to the topic at
1:07 hand. Bookshelf speakers versus tower
1:09 speakers is something Jay and I have a
1:11 lot of experience with. And today we're
1:13 hoping to help you make sense of the
1:16 benefits of each design and to help you
1:18 decide which one may be best for you. So
1:21 Jay, let's go ahead and talk about the
1:23 benefits and the pros and cons of both
1:25 bookshelf speakers and tower speakers.
1:28 Starting with bookshelf speakers. Um,
1:30 what do you have to say about that?
1:31 Yeah, so as far as bookshelf speakers
1:33 go, I have a lot of experience because
1:35 my channel started out reviewing
1:36 exclusively almost bookshelf speakers
1:38 because they're easier to move around.
1:40 They're easier. That's inherent benefit
1:42 right there, right? Easier to move
1:44 around, doesn't break your back. Uh but
1:46 more than that, I preferred the sound of
1:49 bookshelf speakers um in the beginning.
1:51 Uh now we'll talk about why that has
1:54 changed, but inherently, and I'm
1:55 generalizing here because there are
1:56 exceptions like I mentioned with the
1:59 modern day technology, but generally
2:00 speaking, a bookshelf speaker that's
2:04 small tends to be uh more rigid in terms
2:06 of cabinetry design. So it's going to
2:08 be, you know, because it doesn't have a
2:10 lot of, you know, bracing required and
2:12 so on, it's going to be more rigid.
2:13 Therefore, it's going to have a more
2:16 clean kind of cabinet resonance. So
2:18 that's one of benefit inherent benefits
2:20 of a bookshelf design. And therefore in
2:23 my opinion uh how that translate to
2:25 subjectivity is that because of the
2:27 simplicity of like a two-way which is
2:29 usually a bookshelf speaker tweeter and
2:32 a woofer that's a two-way you get this
2:35 like kind of like a very easy effortless
2:39 sound stage and imaging and within that
2:42 you kind of get this sense that you get
2:45 really nice uh details in the mid-range
2:47 and high frequency whereas with a floor
2:50 standard you get more dynamics, more
2:52 bass extension because of the larger
2:54 enclosure size and more woofers. Mhm.
2:57 Um, and again, the biggest difference
2:59 here is going to be amplification
3:01 because of the sensitivity differences.
3:03 It's actually a misconception that a
3:05 floor stander is harder to drive. A lot
3:07 of people look at big floor standers and
3:09 go, "Oh, big speaker need big power."
3:10 But no, it's the opposite. Small
3:13 speakers need big power. Because for a
3:14 small speaker to have the same amount of
3:17 extension as a floor stander with a big
3:21 cabinet, well, it sacrifice sensitivity
3:23 and that means that you will need more
3:25 power behind that speaker to get to that
3:29 same level of SPL or volume level. So,
3:31 there's give and take with each design
3:32 and most of that surrounds around around
3:34 something called the Huffman's Iron Law
3:36 and you can look it up, but basically
3:38 I'm going to touch upon it here. There's
3:39 three parameters: sensitivity, enclosure
3:42 size, and extension of the base. And the
3:45 laws the law dictates that the designer
3:47 can choose and prioritize two of these
3:49 parameters and by doing so they
3:52 compromise on the third. So basically a
3:54 bookshelf speaker design is going to be
3:57 more inherently uh you know smaller in
3:59 an enclosure which is more ideal for
4:02 spaces and have if and if you want that
4:03 extension then you're going to be
4:05 sacrificing on sensitivity for example
4:07 right which is what I explained. So,
4:10 those are the general kind of benefits
4:12 of each design. Yeah. I mean, you know,
4:14 when it comes to bookshelf speakers,
4:16 I'll just throw in my take on it.
4:17 There's a lot of benefits to bookshelf
4:19 speakers. I mean, number one, they're
4:21 small. Uh, and because of that, there's
4:22 a lot of flexibility in terms of
4:23 placement. I think that's why most
4:25 people actually buy a bookshelf speaker
4:26 because, let's face it, most of us in
4:29 the real world, we don't have 3 4 feet
4:31 of space to pull something out into the
4:34 room. We need to put it next to a wall.
4:36 And because bookshelf speakers tend to
4:38 produce less bass, there's a little bit
4:40 less interactivity between the speaker
4:42 and the wall. And it's just easier to
4:44 get a more balanced sound out of a
4:46 bookshelf speaker. Not only because of
4:48 that, but because, as you mentioned,
4:51 most, not all, but most bookshelf
4:53 speakers, especially compacts, are
4:56 two-way designs. And it's inherently
4:58 easier to get two drivers, a tweeter and
5:01 usually a woofer, to pair up well
5:02 together and to perform well together
5:05 than it is to get multiple drivers to
5:07 all speak to each other and to hand off
5:09 the frequencies to each other very
5:11 evenly and in a controlled and
5:15 predictable way. Uh so beyond that
5:17 bookshelf speakers also because they're
5:19 typ typically very slim there's less
5:21 defraction and what that means is the
5:23 imaging you know which most audio files
5:25 love is like catnip to audio files. Oh
5:28 big sound stage. Well bookshelf speakers
5:30 are inherently great at giving you that
5:32 huge sound stage. So when you add it all
5:34 together, you have a speaker that
5:36 typically costs a little bit less than
5:37 their floor standard counterparts
5:40 because there's just less material cost,
5:42 right? Both in shipping material,
5:43 shipping cost, as well as the product
5:46 itself. And you have this speaker that
5:48 doesn't cost as much money as a bigger
5:50 speaker. Um, with today's technology,
5:52 you can get relatively full range sound
5:55 out of a bookshelf speaker. It's easy to
5:58 place and it ultimately is more
6:01 lifestyle friendly. So there's a there's
6:02 a big reason why bookshelf speakers sell
6:05 so well nowadays, but there's going to
6:08 be limitations. And the limitations are,
6:10 as you described with Hoffman's law,
6:12 when when you have a small speaker,
6:15 there's only so much bass that is going
6:17 to produce even with today's tech. And
6:19 there's only so much cabinet volume that
6:21 there is to work with. So it's only
6:24 going to play so loud and give you so
6:26 much output. And that's where floor
6:27 standers come in. That's where floor
6:30 standers, you know, you typically have
6:32 more drivers, a much larger cabinet to
6:34 deal with, and that's going to translate
6:36 into something that'll play louder.
6:38 It'll give you more bass. It'll dig
6:40 deeper. It'll sound bigger. And there
6:41 are going to be people out there who
6:43 say, "I want that because when I listen
6:45 to music, I want to be impressed. I want
6:47 it to be more of a visceral experience."
6:50 And a floor standard speaker is going to
6:52 be better at delivering that visceral
6:54 like listening experience than a
6:56 bookshelf speaker or even a bookshelf
6:58 speaker with a subwoofer. One could
7:01 argue. So ultimately it's more a matter
7:03 of choosing well what kind of experience
7:05 do I want? Do I care about having that
7:08 visceral experience or am I more a
7:11 quality over quantity person? You know
7:13 it really depends on your budget. I do
7:15 think and you may disagree with me here.
7:16 I think once you get to a certain price
7:18 point, it really kind of doesn't matter.
7:20 I think floor standards are honestly
7:22 you're you're not sacrificing anything
7:24 with quality, but you know, you do have
7:25 to start paying a pretty good amount of
7:28 money for that. But that's ultimately
7:31 the generalized synopsis of the
7:34 benefits, the pros and cons of each as
7:37 I'm going to give one more benefit to
7:40 the bookshelf speakers uh because I'm
7:42 going to start slashing it after this.
7:44 Okay. Um, so another benefit that I
7:45 found with bookshop speakers is that you
7:47 can choose the height of your stance.
7:49 You can choose the stands. Yes. And that
7:50 may seem like a little thing, but it
7:52 goes a long way because that means that
7:54 you can match the height of the stand so
7:57 that the tweeter is in line with your
7:59 ears. And if you saw my bookshelf
8:00 speakers from the early days, I
8:03 mentioned this again and again and again
8:05 and again because it's that important,
8:07 you know, in those little fine details
8:09 and the soundstaging and the imaging you
8:11 get. That also has to do with the
8:13 inherent benefit of using a bookshop
8:15 speaker is that you can choose the
8:18 stand, the style, the height and so on
8:20 to make sure that it's optimally placed
8:23 not only horizontally but vertically.
8:25 Yeah. And this is key for integration as
8:27 well like seamless integration between
8:30 the tweeter and the woofer. So yeah,
8:32 very important right and whereas you
8:34 know a floor standard is kind of fixed
8:36 right unless you get two uber expensive
8:38 you know Wilson audio stack you can you
8:40 know pull down and all that kind of
8:42 adjustments um but we're not talking
8:45 about those so uh so there's benefit
8:47 with placement I would say when it comes
8:49 to bookshell speakers easier to move
8:50 around you know easier to test out
8:52 placements versus you know versus a big
8:55 tower. So, there's benefits there.
8:57 However, I personally think a floor
9:01 stander is a generally a better choice
9:03 for people that don't want to integrate,
9:06 you know, multi-sub setups, right, uh,
9:07 with a bookshelf speakers, cuz you can
9:09 do that, but it takes tremendous amount
9:12 of work. And there's reason that people
9:14 are, you know, the people have a make a
9:17 living doing AV setups for this exact
9:19 reason. It's it's not easy. uh you have
9:20 to take in room measurements, you have
9:22 to have the gear to measure and you have
9:24 to you know or you have to do subc crawl
9:26 and all that kind of stuff and DSP and
9:30 so on and and having a bookshelf speaker
9:32 plus you know multi-ubs will also run
9:35 you big cash right so at the end of the
9:38 day I find that with
9:40 bookshelf speakers if you think about
9:42 the Huffman's iron law again you're
9:46 essentially sacrificing sensitivity and
9:49 basically you know um you know for
9:51 extension right it's a trade-off between
9:54 sensitivity and extension whereas you
9:56 know for the for the gain of a smaller
9:57 enclosure so that's the benefit you're
9:58 getting you're getting a smaller
10:01 enclosure right and for the same
10:03 extension you're losing sensitivity
10:04 which you know it's kind of like a
10:06 double whammy in a way the way I see it
10:09 whereas a floor stander well technically
10:12 the compromise here is that you it's a
10:14 size and if you're getting a floor
10:15 stander you know that it's going to be a
10:17 certain size well there's another
10:18 complexity to to a floor standard, which
10:20 is the added complexity. A lot of floor
10:23 standards are three-ways, you know, and
10:25 even more complex than that. And that
10:27 means a more complicated crossover. And
10:29 while some engineers would actually
10:30 argue a three-way is better because now
10:32 you have the tweeter is only doing
10:34 tweeter things. You can have a mid-range
10:36 driver that's only handling the
10:37 mid-range and a bass driver that's only
10:39 handling the mid-range versus one driver
10:42 trying to do both. But again, pulling
10:44 off three different size drivers,
10:46 especially in the time domain, and
10:48 trying to get a crossover to make each
10:51 and everyone complement each other,
10:52 there's going to be phase shifts and
10:54 there's going to be, you know, nesting
10:57 crossover, right? So, but generally
10:59 speaking, because you have a if you have
11:02 a three-way, for example, or 2.5 way or
11:04 whatever, if you have the woofers uh in
11:06 series, right? multiple woofers in
11:08 series or parallel. That's how you
11:10 increase sensitivity in a floor standing
11:12 speaker. Yes. So that's the inherent
11:14 benefit, but you're right, it's more
11:17 complicated. So you do need to make sure
11:18 that you're getting a floor stander
11:20 from, you know, a reputable designer
11:23 that knows and has a history of knowing
11:25 how to design three ways properly. Yeah.
11:27 Uh but yes, I would generally agree that
11:30 a simple two-way is more more or less
11:33 coherent. More coherent. They're easier
11:35 to design. Yeah. easier to design and
11:38 easier to integrate into a room. Um, but
11:40 generally speaking, I think that in
11:43 terms of the compromises,
11:44 like if I want the least amount of
11:47 compromises without the, you know,
11:49 integration of subs, I would say floor
11:51 stander is personally my choice now,
11:53 which is a pretty big deviation from my
11:56 earlier days where I strongly prefer
11:59 bookshelves uh over floor standers. But
12:01 over time, I've come to love floor
12:04 standards a little bit more. Right.
12:06 Yeah. And I'm kind of biased in that
12:08 sense because look, when I listen to
12:09 music, I love I love bookshelf speakers.
12:11 I really do. I have tons of them and I'm
12:13 happy with them when I listen to them.
12:15 There's something inherently satisfying
12:17 about a small speaker that defies your
12:20 expectations. Oh, yeah. I love that. But
12:23 at the same time, I'm a caveman. All
12:25 right. I'm a caveman. I buy big speakers
12:28 because they make big sound. I'm
12:30 listening to music, right? I want that
12:32 visceral like I'm feeling it in my
12:34 chest. This is cool. The when I'm
12:35 listening to rock and roll, like the
12:38 scale of the music is larger. It sounds
12:39 more confident. I can even if I don't
12:41 listen at loud volumes, just the fact
12:42 that I know I can't or it's going to be
12:45 more dynamic because you just have more
12:47 drivers, more radiating surface area,
12:50 you know, playing back sound to you. Uh
12:53 to me, you can't replicate that even if
12:56 you go with a bookshelf speaker. And
12:57 again, we're talking about the
12:59 stereotypical small bookshelf speaker.
13:01 Mhm. Even that with a couple of really
13:04 good subs, even if you know how to
13:07 integrate subs very well, there's always
13:09 going to be the limitation of in the
13:11 small speakers, especially a two-way,
13:13 you have one woofer trying to do it all.
13:15 And it's only going to be able to play
13:17 so loud and to give you so much of that
13:19 visceral type of sound. Right. And it's
13:21 not just about frequency response. Like
13:23 when I say integrating, I think a lot of
13:24 enthusiasts out there that have done
13:26 integration of one or two subs into
13:28 their stereo may be thinking, well, it's
13:30 not that hard. You just place the subs
13:33 and you know, you cross over and stuff,
13:34 you know, never mind the optimal
13:36 placement. Even if you get the optimal
13:38 placement, it's not just about the
13:40 crossing of the right frequency. There
13:42 has to be the impulse response as well,
13:45 cuz the impulse response of the midwifer
13:47 is going to be inherently different from
13:49 the impulse response of your subs. So
13:51 there's going to be a lot of kind of
13:53 that's why when I first had subwoers
13:55 integrated in my setup with a two-way
13:57 bookshelf speaker, I had this experience
14:00 where I felt like the bass was like
14:03 loose. Yeah. Right. And the timing was
14:06 off and I was like figuring trying to
14:07 figure out why the frequency measurement
14:09 looked beautiful. You know, it was a
14:10 textbook. I was like what's going on
14:12 here? Why am I not getting a musical
14:14 sound right? And it was the impulse
14:16 response and that's what I found out
14:18 later. So there's many aspects and it's
14:19 going to be a learning curve. It's like
14:21 learning how to integrate a sub is not a
14:24 you know easy task and like I said
14:25 that's why there's people that have made
14:28 a living you know setting these things
14:31 up. So it's going to be a trial and
14:33 error thing. So if you are trying to
14:35 beat the compromise of a bookshelf
14:37 speaker by you know giving it more
14:39 extension with a subwoofer integration
14:41 and so on it's not going to be an easy
14:44 task. Um and same thing for obviously
14:46 floor standards as well. Uh you know
14:48 again the inherent benefit is that it
14:50 gets higher sensitivity. So you can
14:51 drive it with two amplifiers, low
14:53 powered amplifiers. And that's kind of
14:55 where my love currently comes from is
14:57 that more flexibility and pairing of the
14:59 amplifier. Yeah. But that also means
15:00 that your room is going to be the
15:02 physical limitation. For example, the
15:04 1528 tower speakers. I love that
15:06 speaker. And people were like, "Why
15:08 aren't you going to buy it?" Well, cuz I
15:10 don't have the space, you know? like I
15:13 I'm crying, but I did buy the 1528
15:14 bookshelf speakers instead, right?
15:17 Because of that exact reason. Um, but
15:20 that kind of brings me to the socalled
15:23 sweet spot and why I have over the years
15:25 kind of deviated away from my high
15:27 preference for bookshelf speakers to
15:30 more the middle ground. And this is
15:32 where I call like the sweet spot because
15:35 you can't really call the 1520 bookshelf
15:38 speakers a bookshelf speaker. Yeah, you
15:41 really can't. Um I mean that thing if
15:43 you see my video uh sitting beside me
15:45 it's like gigantic. It's like bigger
15:48 than me. Uh not not difficult to achieve
15:52 but yes I get it. Um yeah so and you
15:54 know that's you know like the PS Audio
15:56 FR5 for example. I put that speaker
15:58 beside it to kind of you know compare
16:00 the size difference right but it's not a
16:02 knock on the PS audio speakers. It's
16:05 bigger than most I mean any bookshelf
16:07 speaker I have seen and you can't really
16:08 say it's a bookshelf speaker because of
16:10 how big it is right so with a speaker
16:12 like that you kind of get the best of
16:15 both worlds um and you got a big cabinet
16:16 so you get deep space based extension
16:19 it's a three-way by the way so it's you
16:23 know um so it has you know very good
16:25 kind of middle ground where you get the
16:27 imaging and the soundstaging of a
16:29 bookshelf speaker but the extension and
16:32 the dynamics of a tower speaker Mhm. M
16:34 um and that same kind of sweet spot
16:36 exists with something you know Sean and
16:39 I love which is slim towers for example
16:41 the Ross Ferentino to twos love that
16:44 speaker right has great mid-range and
16:46 high frequency like even better than a
16:48 lot of the bookshelf speakers I've heard
16:51 right but has reasonable extension you
16:54 know as well like did you know they
16:56 discontinued that speaker
16:58 excuse me they discontinued it they
16:59 don't have a direct replacement they
17:01 have the new Arno series but they plan
17:03 on doing a solder replacement that I
17:06 know of. Okay. In that case, I changed
17:09 my uh I changed my totem speakers. There
17:11 we go. They're calling. Yeah, there you
17:12 go. And then there's no Russell Fentino.
17:15 I love I I'm I'm right now kind of
17:17 shocked and heartbroken by that news. Uh
17:19 but there are other options like totem
17:21 speaker is a good one too where you get
17:23 really good dynamics of a floor stander,
17:25 but you also get great imaging and
17:27 separation from a bookshelf speaker,
17:29 right? Where because it's a slim design.
17:31 So, I found like big big bookshelf
17:34 speakers and slim tower speakers to be a
17:36 good compromise in between. If you're
17:38 someone that's like, "Oh, I don't want
17:41 to, you know, go straight for bookshelf
17:43 or a big ass tower, you know, I want
17:44 something in between. That's a sweet
17:47 spot in between." I would say I would I
17:49 would highly recommend looking into slim
17:52 towers and large bookshelf speakers. I
17:54 totally a thousand% agree with you. And,
17:55 you know, we've had this conversation
17:58 before. I mean, that's where my personal
18:00 bias actually lies is I I tend to prefer
18:02 tower speakers if I had to be entirely
18:04 honest. But, I mean, to me, I think a
18:06 good recommendation, especially for the
18:09 critical audio file, somebody who's not
18:10 completely new to this, but you're still
18:12 not totally experienced, I would
18:14 encourage a lot of these people to look
18:18 into a slim tower or a bookshelf speaker
18:20 because what it does is you're getting
18:22 the audio file things that you expect
18:23 from a two-way. You're getting a lot of
18:26 the quality and the imaging, but at the
18:27 same time now you're getting something
18:30 with better base extension, with better
18:33 dynamic and out raw output capability
18:36 and but it still is not so large that it
18:38 takes up a tremendous amount of space.
18:40 Often times these products can still be
18:42 used in a real world environment to
18:44 where you can keep it closeish to a
18:46 wall, you know, within 2 ft or something
18:48 like that from a wall boundary. And
18:51 again, you're kind of getting uh I
18:52 wouldn't say the best of both worlds,
18:55 but you're getting a very good
18:57 representation of what each world has to
19:00 offer. So, um I think that's a really
19:03 really solid in between, you know,
19:05 suggestion. Yeah. And I think, you know,
19:07 the the the whole thing with the
19:09 amplifier requirement, right? Uh
19:10 amplifier requirement for floor
19:12 standards are easier again because it's
19:13 more sensitive. I'm keep I'm keep
19:16 driving this fact because I I get so
19:17 many people in the comment section
19:18 looking at bigger speakers asking me how
19:20 much power it requires. But when I
19:23 review a small speaker, despite all the
19:25 disclaimers of how much power it
19:26 requires, people are like, "Oh, no
19:28 problem. No, no need for power. Small,
19:31 small, small, no power." So, I want to
19:34 drive that home. Bigger speakers tend to
19:38 be uh more more sensitive, meaning needs
19:41 less power. I would say this too when it
19:44 comes to uh you know power and whatnot.
19:46 It's it's funny. You would think a small
19:48 speaker uh wouldn't need that much, but
19:50 it actually does need a decent amount of
19:53 power and yet at the same time its
19:55 ultimate volume output capability is
19:57 going to be limited. So it's like you
19:58 don't want to get too much or else you
20:01 risk damaging the speaker. And another
20:02 kind of consequence of this is finding
20:04 bookshelf speakers that actually sound
20:05 really good at low volumes. They
20:07 definitely do exist. I think my Harbath
20:10 P3s in a desktop environment are a great
20:14 example of this. Uh but uh it's this is
20:15 where floor standards tend to be more
20:17 advantageous because not only can they
20:18 play louder, but a lot of floor
20:20 standards actually can sound pretty good
20:22 at whisper quiet volumes, especially
20:23 when you start getting into horn
20:25 designs. Like that's where they really
20:27 have just a tremendous amount of
20:29 versatility. The compromise is do you
20:31 like the sound of the horn? Yeah. Well,
20:34 the the technical compromise of of a
20:36 horn like a clip RP600M where it's more
20:38 sensitive, right, would be the uh
20:40 basically the extension. Yeah. So, you
20:42 will be compromising on extension
20:44 because you have a small enclosure and
20:46 you have high sensitivity which means
20:51 your compromise would be no base or not.
20:52 And those brands and this kind of you
20:54 know is where you know it gets kind of
20:55 complex if you really get into the
20:58 details. So, every company has their
21:00 philosophy. You will find certain brands
21:02 that like using, you know, woofers,
21:04 maybe a small speaker that has a woofer
21:07 that moves a lot. And the whole point is
21:08 it can handle mid-range but give you a
21:10 lot of bass, but in order to do that,
21:11 the woofer needs to move a lot to move
21:13 the air. But then you have companies
21:15 like Clips, like who do mostly horns and
21:17 their whole thing is, yeah, they're big,
21:19 but we're not tuning it aggressively
21:21 into bass because our philosophy is the
21:23 more a woofer moves, the more it
21:25 distorts. That's a bad thing. So, we're
21:27 going to use big woofers in a big
21:29 enclosure. You're probably not going to
21:31 get as deep of a base as you expect. But
21:32 the compromise here is that it's going
21:34 to be easy to drive and it's going to
21:35 get really freaking loud and it's not
21:37 going to need hardly any power, but at
21:40 the same time can take a lot of power if
21:44 you do want to go there. So, it's it's a
21:45 matter of just determining what you
21:47 want. I think for uh for a lot of
21:49 people, it's a matter of like, hey, do I
21:51 want to feel like I'm in a concert? Do I
21:53 want to feel like the performers are in
21:55 the room with me and do I want it to be
21:56 visceral? If that's the case, you're
21:57 going to you're going to have to go with
22:00 a bigger speaker. But if that's not as
22:02 important to you, I think a strong case
22:05 can be made for compact speakers and
22:07 even compact with a sub if you're not
22:08 trying to go for that experience. Yeah.
22:10 And we didn't even mention it because
22:12 this is kind of, you know, common sense,
22:14 but of course, you have to put into your
22:16 room size into account, right? We're
22:17 generalizing here because we're not
22:19 going to be talking small, medium, and
22:21 large rooms. But in a general sense,
22:23 large rooms, you're going to want bigger
22:25 towers, right? or a bookshelf with
22:28 multiple subs. But I'll argue that in a
22:30 bigger room like a tower is a better
22:32 choice because of that sensitivity level
22:34 and that you know higher power handling
22:36 so it can get louder um with lower
22:39 distortion relatively speaking. So
22:41 that's kind of you know where I see
22:43 towers almost as a automatic
22:45 recommendation is if you're in a bigger
22:48 space in a smaller space is 50/50. Um, I
22:50 would still go with a slim tower like I
22:52 said or a big bookshelf, which is what
22:55 I've done. But if you are someone that
22:59 is heavily into like jazz and you know
23:02 you only like sound stage in mid-range
23:04 and high frequency with adequate bass,
23:06 right? Then a bookshelf speaker is going
23:07 to be the choice. Cuz at the end of the
23:10 day, for a lot less money, you're going
23:11 to be able to get that sound stage
23:15 imaging um that you're looking for.
23:18 if you want dynamics for the x amount of
23:19 money, then you would probably get more
23:22 dynamics from a slim floor stander or a
23:25 full size floor stander. Um, you know,
23:27 so it's a trade-off on what you're
23:28 trying to put towards, but once you get
23:31 to that, you know, above ridiculous
23:33 high-end, you know, price levels. Once
23:34 you get a certain price, it doesn't
23:36 matter at that point. Like the kind is
23:38 good in every way. Yeah. Like like the
23:40 Platinum on VC1, VC2, that's like the
23:43 speakers I'm rocking right now, right?
23:45 And that's like both, right? It's like
23:48 both. Has bass, has mid-range. Yeah,
23:50 that's what I want to hear. Um, and that
23:52 leads me to kind of the final question
23:54 here or the final thing I want to cover.
23:57 And this is more personal. So Jay, what
23:59 do you prefer? Bookshelf speakers or
24:02 towers? And then on top of that, in each
24:06 category, what would be your favorite
24:08 as far as like a certain product? I
24:10 should have clarified like what's your
24:11 favorite bookshelf speaker? What's your
24:14 favorite tower speaker? Okay. Uh, well,
24:16 I'm going to cheat. Uh, well, my
24:18 favorite favorite bookshelf speaker is
24:20 the one that I have uh I'm still waiting
24:22 for my purchase to come. Okay. Uh,
24:24 because it's sold out and it's being
24:26 delayed uh until September, which is a
24:29 1528 bookshelf speakers. Okay. Um, and
24:31 that's like I said, great sweet spot.
24:34 It's a big bookshelf speaker, right? So
24:36 it has you know um benefits from
24:37 bookshelf speaker design like
24:39 soundstaging imaging and then it also
24:42 has the bass capability uh much like a
24:44 tower speaker. Weird thing about that
24:46 speaker is that when I measured it and
24:47 even according to a Rendle's own
24:49 measurements, the bookshelf speaker has
24:52 deeper extension than the towers, which
24:55 is but in terms of dynamics, the tower
24:59 is still much more dynamic in in person
25:01 and and then both of those speakers
25:03 extend so much to where it's almost nil
25:05 like you know talking about floor versus
25:08 bookshelf speakers. But that would be my
25:10 bookshelf choice um if I'm cheating. But
25:12 if I'm not cheating, I would say still
25:14 like the Bard S400 Mark II hits the
25:16 right spot. Yeah. For compact like
25:18 bookshelf, bookshelf. If you want a
25:20 large sound stage and, you know, a
25:22 smooth listening experience
25:24 um with adequate good amount of
25:26 extension in the bass and quality, then
25:28 I would say that speaker really tickles
25:32 my feathers. And uh why my feathers?
25:33 That expression. Yeah, your feathers.
25:35 Yeah, let's not talk about your feathers.
25:37 feathers.
25:41 Uh, and as far as uh uh Towers go, still
25:43 I know it's discontinued, but Ross
25:45 Ferentino twos are going to be one of my
25:50 favorites. Yeah. Um, but again, I
25:53 usually own stuff that I like a lot. So,
25:56 obviously, so I have the VC1 and VC2
25:58 from from Platimon, uh, sorry, Platimon,
26:01 VC1, VC2 from Moustic, which are my main
26:03 speakers that I'm rocking right now. And
26:06 those are kind of like slim towers,
26:09 right? Medium format towers. Um, and I
26:12 like those a lot because it has a lot of
26:14 flexibility, adjustability, especially
26:17 in the high frequencies and the overall
26:18 tonality of the speaker through the
26:22 adjustments of the harmonic tweeter. And
26:24 that kind of flexibility is great
26:26 because the bass is excellent. It has a
26:28 bass, you know, woofer, you know, design
26:30 designed in house has a lot of ports. So
26:32 the bass extension is great, has great
26:34 amount of bass, but I can adjust the
26:36 mid-range and high frequency to make it
26:40 more clinical or more transparent or
26:42 warm or rich, you know. So I can control
26:45 that aspect. Um, and because of the, you
26:48 know, smaller form factor like a it's a
26:50 slim tower basically, uh, once you go up
26:52 to the top cuz it kind of tapers up. Um,
26:55 I get that kind of bookshelf benefit.
26:57 And the VC1 is a bookshelf speaker just
26:59 sitting on top of the VC2 module. So
27:01 that's why I kind of like it. So once
27:02 you get to that kind of specialized
27:04 designs, you're going to find speakers,
27:06 you know, and the platinum is not cheap.
27:09 It's like 16 grand, 17, 18 grand. So
27:11 once you get to that kind of, you know,
27:13 higher end kind of speakers, you're
27:15 going to find a lot of design choices to
27:18 kind of fight or mitig mitigate the
27:21 downsides of a certain design aspect.
27:23 Yeah. Yeah. That's what I find. So yeah,
27:27 those are my choices. How about you? Cool.
27:28 Cool. Um,
27:29 Um,
27:32 well, jeez, you know me and favorites,
27:34 this doesn't really work out well. Okay,
27:35 so when it comes to bookshelf speakers,
27:37 let me go ahead and just use something
27:40 that I have in my house, right? Mhm. Um,
27:42 you would think it'd be the Confidence
27:43 20s that are behind me. And don't get me
27:46 wrong, they're really good, but it's the
27:50 Special 40 is a very The Special 40
27:53 because it's a picky speaker. It's very
27:55 sensitive to placement. It's not really
27:56 equipment matching so much as placement
27:58 that makes or breaks this speaker,
28:01 right? Mhm. But if you get it right,
28:04 that speaker, I love the fact that it
28:06 can give I mean, I love the look of it
28:08 and the the black vine finish that they
28:10 have. Number one, I think it's it's
28:12 beautiful. But number two, when you get
28:14 it set up right, or at least to my
28:17 taste, I think it's a speaker that gives
28:19 you a strong taste of the high-end. It
28:21 looks high-end, but it's just
28:22 approachable enough to where I feel like
28:24 I can listen to darn near anything
28:27 through it. And it has really good tone
28:30 to it. And o overall, uh, again, it's a
28:31 speaker that I can't recommend all the
28:33 time because of its pickiness. Like,
28:35 somebody really has to be committed to
28:38 working with that speaker. But, um, but
28:40 if you get it right, yeah, that's the
28:42 one that I really like because for the
28:44 money, and I wouldn't say it's the, you
28:46 know, it's expensive. It's very
28:48 expensive, but for the money, I feel
28:49 like that one does a great job of
28:51 defying my expectations time and time
28:53 again. Like I I set it up, I get it
28:55 where I like it, and it's like, God, if
28:58 I had to if that was it, if I just had
28:59 to like move into like an apartment or
29:01 something like that, that's all I would
29:04 need. I'd be I'd be good. And you're not
29:05 you're talking about the special 40, not
29:07 the heritage, right? Yeah. Okay. Okay.
29:09 Yeah. Special 40. So, the heritage I
29:12 also love. Um, but I think the special
29:15 40 impresses me the most for what it is.
29:16 Interesting. So, the other two are
29:18 definitely better. Let's be clear,
29:20 they're better speakers, but for me,
29:22 sometimes it's not about better, it's
29:24 about what I, you know, am impressed
29:27 with, and that one impresses me more for
29:29 what it is. Um, and then when it comes
29:31 to towers, it's really almost impossible
29:34 for me to choose. Um, if I were to go
29:36 with something more affordable, I would
29:38 say the Clips Cornwall 4. Oh, yeah.
29:40 Surprisingly enough, that thing again,
29:42 another speaker that I can't recommend
29:43 all the time because it's even more
29:45 picky than the Special 40 when it comes
29:47 to positioning. Literally a millimeter
29:49 here or a millimeter there could be the
29:51 difference between a lot of bass and no
29:53 bass out of that speaker. Bright sound
29:56 or actually pretty balanced sound. Very
29:57 particular. But again, when you get that
30:02 set up right, God, it just makes music,
30:04 man. The the amount of air the amount of
30:08 air that speaker moves is insane. It is
30:10 really good. Yeah, that was I was kind
30:12 of surprised how well it worked in my
30:15 room. Even it was so big though. Like it
30:17 was way too big for my room, but the
30:20 sound was so good. I still I still love
30:22 that speaker. It's because the throat of
30:24 the horn that they use the Traxx horn
30:26 like it's it's not that deep. And
30:27 because it's not that deep and the way
30:29 it projects out into the room, you can
30:31 still sit fairly close to the cornwall
30:33 and get a fairly balanced sound. It's
30:36 their larger speakers with the actual
30:38 proper horns, you know, that uh you need
30:40 more distance. I I still think that
30:43 that's my personal favorite clip speaker
30:44 to this day. No, same here, man. The
30:46 Cornwall 4, they knocked it out of the
30:49 park. And um normally I do prefer
30:52 speakers with a little bit more fidelity
30:54 um or whatchamacallit. But I think for
30:56 the money, even though they're more
30:58 expensive now than when we reviewed
31:00 them, I still think for well under 10
31:01 grand, that's a lot of speaker for your
31:04 money. Both physically and when it comes
31:06 to just raw performance, I think Yeah.
31:08 But the cabinet the the veneer job is
31:11 absolutely God, you look at that speaker
31:14 and it just scratches. You just Yeah.
31:15 Yeah. That's one of the reasons I that
31:17 it broke my heart. I couldn't keep them
31:19 around because of the sheer size, but
31:22 also because like I literally like put
31:25 my lens cap, you understand? It's a
31:28 plastic cap. It has no possibility of
31:30 damaging anything. It's the most It's
31:32 supposed to protect my lens. Okay, I put
31:35 it on top. I took it off and there's
31:36 micro scratches and I was like freaking
31:39 out. I was like, "What the heck? Who the
31:41 But yeah, you breathe on that speaker.
31:42 It scratches. The veneer job is
31:45 terrible." It is. It's It's true. It's
31:47 great to look at, but yeah. Yeah. Once
31:49 you when you get it. When you get it get
31:51 it after a week, it looks like it's been
31:53 three years. Then you go and dust it and
31:56 then forget it. Yeah. Never dust it.
31:58 Never dust. But yeah, that's going to be
31:59 uh my choice. Well, I tell you what, I
32:01 think we're just about ready to wrap up
32:02 this video. Anything else you want to
32:04 add? No, that's pretty much it. Cool.
32:07 So, the giveaway,
32:11 um, so we're the, uh, Audio Legacy, had
32:13 to think about it for a second, is going
32:16 to be giving away a 3 m pair of, I think
32:18 it's called the Aurora power cord from
32:20 Wireworld. Um, so, fairly expensive
32:22 power cord and it's a very long power
32:24 cord. And all you have to do to enter to
32:26 win is respond in this video in the
32:28 comment section down below as to which
32:31 you prefer, bookshelf speakers or tower
32:33 speakers. bonus points if you actually
32:35 explain, you know, why you feel that
32:36 way. Who knows, you guys may have
32:38 something that uh Jay and I haven't
32:40 covered here or maybe even haven't
32:42 thought of ourselves. So, it' be
32:43 interesting to see your responses, but
32:45 this is going to be our take on the
32:47 subject. And hopefully, if you didn't
32:48 learn anything new, hopefully you were
32:51 entertained for a half hour or so. This
32:53 is our third take, by the way. We're
32:55 brain farting hard. But thank you for
32:57 joining and thank you for withstanding
32:59 this uh longass video. And we'll see you
33:01 guys on our next one bit podcast. Until
