Bookshelves as fronts

[ack_bak]

I went from a pair of Polk rti-series tower speakers with a matching Polk center to 3 SVS SCS-01 bookshelf speakers, and to my ears, the SVS speakers are a clear upgrade in overall sound. You just need a good subwoofer(s) to handle the bass around 80hz and below. This is what these speakers are designed to do. For movies and TV, bookshelf speakers paired with subwoofers are great. For 2-channel music, tower speakers tend to have an advantage IMHO. But my speakers are rarely if ever used for 2-channel music.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by browndk26

Who else here uses bookshelf speakers as their front speakers?

I do.... sold off a pair of towers and got them.... I'm very happy, although I loved those towers...... either way...... I'm happy.

Originally Posted by HAMP

Why?

many reasons......

Originally Posted by forsberg21

A pair of bookshelf B&W's comes to mind.......

what ones

Originally Posted by blu_world

bookshelves are okay for front speakers,just don't expect them to sound the same once you blast them,they stress a lot easier once you reach a certain volume level

I'd take the pepsi challenge with you...... put the same source/amp to your towers..... turn it up until they blow...... then connect my bookshelves.... I bet I could let it sustain the same amount of juice for an hour without damage....... probably without distortion too.

I'm willing to bet your towers distort before my bookshelves.... That's why blanket statements like "Bookshelf speakers don't sound as good as towers" or "Towers can handle more power" etc.... don't really hold water.

[ls7z06]

I would not hesitate for a single minute to build a set up with 4 LSi9's, a matching LSiC center channel, a good sub and decent amp.

After I was already way down the road with my RTiA series HT set up, I also installed a set of LSi9's with an Emo UPA-2 in a different room for 2 channel stereo.....and WOW! Those are fantastic book shelf speakers and I have often wondered how they might sound in a 5.1 HT set up. I suspect they would sound fantastic.

[ZedsDead]

I have Mirage Omni C150's as fronts, and even though they were designed for the center channel they sound great as left and right fronts. They handle bass better than I expected but I definitely could not run them without a subwoofer to make me happy.

[JBL4645]

The five fronts only three active at the moment till I get two matching or other matrix Dolby decoders to extract the inner left and centre and free centre front up and left and right while it produces a kinder of new signal in the (inner-left centre and inner-right centre) fronts.

All present fronts left centre right are running with Behringer DCX2496 with parametric EQ LF/HF and audio limiters LF/HF for protection.

My cat, Sooty as been is crafty little bugger. The past few days he’s been jumping and exploring behind the screen speakers. The white sheet is bed sheet that I drop down for the LCD video projector and the image matches nicely with the matching fronts!



I’ve been running with JBL control 5 now for 20 years nice simple little versatile speaker and they fit nicely in this 15 foot L 10 foot wide 7 foot 8” high room.

The passive crossovers have been totally bypassed in case your wonder how I connected the LF/HF up. The LF runs off the Alesis RA300 and the HF run off my Marantz 1050 soon to be replaced with AlesisRA300 it’s a question of money! Now then!

The unsightly view may look unappealing but that’s that for now till I decided to knock-up some timber framing for base platform to rest the speakers smartly.

The tonally sound of the LF and HF are within a tiny fraction of 0.1 or so db after spending hours with pink noise the wall!

Bookshelf speakers are a smart investment where space is tight and makes nice sound once you spend the hours on it to ensure the tonally voices of dialogue panning moves across from C to L or R or R to C and L what ever.

Also phantom inner left and centre to right. Films like My Fair Lady or Indiana Jones and the last Crusade uses hard dialogue pans to half pan sounds and they need to be located precisely to match up on the LCD video projection screen which they do nicely.

How about recreating a similar Cinerama five-screen…
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=125128

[blu_world]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

I'd take the pepsi challenge with you...... put the same source/amp to your towers..... turn it up until they blow...... then connect my bookshelves.... I bet I could let it sustain the same amount of juice for an hour without damage....... probably without distortion too.

I'm willing to bet your towers distort before my bookshelves.... That's why blanket statements like "Bookshelf speakers don't sound as good as towers" or "Towers can handle more power" etc.... don't really hold water.

sure,i hope they can produce the same amount of bass with bookshelves vs towers all while remaining in the same class and price range...bookshelves don't hold their own once you put some bass into them,its just logic i tested
because i managed to blow a pair of bookshelves cranking it up with the receiver alone..but if you add a sub woofer in there it's a whole different story,the bookshelves won't be beating them self's to death once you hit the volume knob half ways

it was pretty loud but couldn't handle too much bass before killing it's self,I burnt myself touching the rear speaker basket investigating why it blew out if the smell of burnt electronics's didn't tell me already...haha

[badboi]

Originally Posted by JBL4645

The unsightly view may look unappealing but that’s that for now till I decided to knock-up some timber framing for base platform to rest the speakers smartly.



How about recreating a similar Cinerama five-screen…
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=125128

Oh good lord!

Someone needs to call the Fab Five or Laurence Llewelyn Bowen in and have a clear out.

You must be single, because if I ever did that in my house . . .

[rpatt]

Originally Posted by JBL4645

The five fronts only three active at the moment till I get two matching or other matrix Dolby decoders to extract the inner left and centre and free centre front up and left and right while it produces a kinder of new signal in the (inner-left centre and inner-right centre) fronts.

All present fronts left centre right are running with Behringer DCX2496 with parametric EQ LF/HF and audio limiters LF/HF for protection.

My cat, Sooty as been is crafty little bugger. The past few days he’s been jumping and exploring behind the screen speakers. The white sheet is bed sheet that I drop down for the LCD video projector and the image matches nicely with the matching fronts!



I’ve been running with JBL control 5 now for 20 years nice simple little versatile speaker and they fit nicely in this 15 foot L 10 foot wide 7 foot 8” high room.

The passive crossovers have been totally bypassed in case your wonder how I connected the LF/HF up. The LF runs off the Alesis RA300 and the HF run off my Marantz 1050 soon to be replaced with AlesisRA300 it’s a question of money! Now then!

The unsightly view may look unappealing but that’s that for now till I decided to knock-up some timber framing for base platform to rest the speakers smartly.

The tonally sound of the LF and HF are within a tiny fraction of 0.1 or so db after spending hours with pink noise the wall!

Bookshelf speakers are a smart investment where space is tight and makes nice sound once you spend the hours on it to ensure the tonally voices of dialogue panning moves across from C to L or R or R to C and L what ever.

Also phantom inner left and centre to right. Films like My Fair Lady or Indiana Jones and the last Crusade uses hard dialogue pans to half pan sounds and they need to be located precisely to match up on the LCD video projection screen which they do nicely.

How about recreating a similar Cinerama five-screen…
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=125128

Love the 4645. I bet it really moves some air.

[HAMP]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

many reasons......

Exactly, I was wondering if he could narrow the question down abit or get to what he wanted to know.

Or should most people answer his question with “Me” or “Not Me”

[JBL4645]

Originally Posted by badboi

Oh good lord!

Someone needs to call the Fab Five or Laurence Llewelyn Bowen in and have a clear out.

You must be single, because if I ever did that in my house . . .

...what the wife might come after you...


You haven't seen the surrounds have you!

[JBL4645]

Originally Posted by rpatt

Love the 4645. I bet it really moves some air.

Enough to stop them, playing music below me.

[browndk26]

Originally Posted by HAMP

Exactly, I was wondering if he could narrow the question down abit or get to what he wanted to know.

Or should most people answer his question with “Me” or “Not Me”

There are so many different setups on here I just wanted to know who else is or isn't using them.

[jaeelarr]

My bedroom setup is all bookshelves. SOunds fine.

My first HT setup was PSB bookshelves...also sounded fantastic.

[HHX]

I use Definitive SM350 bookshelves (built in 8" passive radiators) as my fronts and they work great...to me they sounded better than most towers within the $500 price range so I chose them. of course I have a supercube III sub next to them so that helps too

[Xgm3]

Originally Posted by fireman325

There's nothing wrong with using bookshelf speakers. Often a good pair of bookshelf speakers paired with a compentent subwoofer can hang with or even sound better than a pair of towers.

Could not have said it better myself.

[MobileES]

I have a pair of Energy C2's large bookshelf speakers paired to a 120w Sony sub. I've been using them in my home theater setup for almost 10yrs. I still love the way they sound!

[aces high]

A good pair of bookshelf speakers with good sub will do just fine. In my Ht system I went from the Paradigm Monitor 9 v6 to the Paradigm Studio 20 v5. The 20's sound much better than the 9's. With the towers I was running dual subs ( Paradigm DSP 3200 ) and the bookshelfs with one sub ( Paradigm Sub 15 ). The smaller speakers more than hold there own against towers, less distortion and a wider soundstage. Although the spl's are not quite as loud, the sq is better.

[househead]

I'm running a 3 bookshelf front stage and it sounds awesome. I prefer it over my last setup with towers. It all depends on the speakers.

[gamebred]

Originally Posted by househead

I'm running a 3 bookshelf front stage and it sounds awesome. I prefer it over my last setup with towers. It all depends on the speakers.

These look much like Dynaudios, except with front porting, of course. I wouldn't mind hearing a set of these speakers to see how they sound compared to the Focus 110/140s.

[dvs1270]

old cheap sonys up front & they are fine. added a little poly to tighten them up.