So many to choose from! Lets us boil it down.
How to Choose a Floorstanding Speaker that fits you:
| Updated 7/8/2011 |
| What things do I need to consider when buying floorstanding speakers? |
| There are basically four things you should take into consideration when shopping for floorstanding speakers. |
| Space – How big is the room you plan to put these in? Floorstanding speakers can be impressive but in a small room sometimes they are too much. Audio quality suffers without a lot of room treatment. If you have a smaller sized room, something less than 8-10ft wide and 10-15ft long you may want to consider bookshelf speakers and a sub set up. Imaging can sometimes be better and room reflections can be mitigated by seating distance from 2-way near field bookshelf speakers. Speaking of sitting distance, with floorstanding speakers, you’ll want at least 8-10ft of distance between you and the speaker so that the sound from the tweeter and woofers has enough space to fully meld into one before it enters your ears. Of course, every speaker is a bit different, but this is a good rule of thumb distance for 3-way or more speakers. Sound image and quality can suffer if it hasn’t fully formed into one by the time it gets to you. With 2-way floorstanding speakers such as the Salk Songtowers, distance can be closer. You’ll also want to make sure your the speakers aren’t stuff into corners. Rather 2-3ft from them so bass doesn’t become BOOMing and overwhelming. But finding your best sweet spot is your own challenge. If you have the ability, and a dedicated rectangle listing room, try this Golden Triangle approach. It is what I use. |
| Music Style – What kind of music you listen to can be greatly enhanced or detracted from by your speaker choice. Lucky most speakers under $1000 tend to sounds good across a large variety of music, but some have more bump, thump, or detail than others. Some are laid back, good for jazz or acoustic, while others that thump are better for rock, pop, and rap. Just looking at the speaker specs wont tell you how the speaker sounds, so you’ll want to research, read reviews, pro and user reviews, to get an idea of how the speaker will sound. If you can, it is always best to audition the speaker in person with power and input devices similar to your home set up. |
| Associated Equipment – You’ll want to make sure that your amp and input sources characteristics match your speaker characteristics for a desired result. For instance, if your amp is known to be bright, and you get speakers that are also known to be bright, the combo of the two can be over bearing and make listening unpleasant. If your pre-amp or tuner has high and low controls you can adjust for this. If they don’t, than it is a major part of pairing your equipment. Don’t forget to mitigate the associated equipment known as your listening room. Make sure to at least put sound dampening material at the points of 1st reflection and behind you if you can. Here is a good reference article on first reflections points from PSAudio. It is easy and can make a world of difference for soundstage. |
| Home Theater or Stereo Only – If you plan to build up a home theater system at some point it is good to consider if the speakers you are purchasing have associated surrounds, center, and sub speakers paired with the floorstanding. In a surround sound system having matching sounding speakers is very important. |
| Experts may all agree on the advantages or shortcomings of any product they review but, at AudioReview.com, we believe that the average consumer can best summarize all the details a product has to offer… So read what users have to says! |
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Follow this link if you are Interested in Best Speakers Under $2,000
| Axiom M60 v3 ~ $1040 |
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| Brent Butterworth, Sound + Vision, February/March 2011 – The Axiom Audio M60 v3 gave me the reliable engineering excellence I expect from the Canadian school. It also gave me something I didn’t anticipate: that extra dose of audio excitement I often hear in more exotic designs. |
| Mike L., LA (customer comment) writes – I literally began to cry; I mean it! I have never heard sound that incredibly crystal clear, powerful, balanced, overwhelming. I was carried away to another place by the beauty spilling out of these awesome speakers. |
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| Featured Merchants |
| Wharfedale Diamond 9.6 ~ $800 |
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| AudioEnz – Michael Wong – The Diamonds are the kind of product expected from a long time manufacturer dedicated to making music accessible. With it’s canny balance of abilities the Diamonds do a very good job of disappearing and do not get between the listener and the music. With no major flaws, they are a steal, solid proof that the art of building good value stereo equipment survives. |
| AudioReview – 8 Reviews 4.88 of 5 – sburken writes – all four drivers blend together for a warm sound that can be played to exceptionally loud levels without being fatigueing. however, these speakers do not shine when played with very harsh material (IE metal), they shine beautifully when tasked with rock through classical though |
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| Energy Loudspeakers C-500 ~ $400 |
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| Canada HIFI – Through my test, I discovered that the Energy C-Series are a set of very musical speakers with a sweet tooth for the home theatre. With their modest size, they can be easily accommodated into a smaller room, although their sound can effortlessly fill an average sized listening space. |
| AudioReview – 5 Reviews 5.00 of 5 – mastermind717 writes – For the price these are the best speakers I have ever heard. Highs, lows and midrange are tight and accurate. The sound stage is full and pleasant to listen to for hours no matter what your taste in music. I am running the C-500′s without a sub though I’m certain a mid size velodyne would compliment these nicely, especially for movies. |
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| Magnepan Magneplanar MMG ~ $600 |
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| Goodsound.com – They’re so good that they’ll make you look like an audio wunderkind and make your system sing as never before. They do need to be driven by a good, strong receiver or amp — no 25W weaklings need apply — and they’ll expose weaknesses upstream from them (if you have a cheap, tinny-sounding CD player, for instance). They’ll also expose the intricate layers of beauty that might be hidden by your current speakers, so if you’re tempted to give ‘em a try, you can have these Maggies in your home for a 60-day, money-back trial. |
| AudioReview – 283 Reviews 4.72 of 5 – stuartson writes – First off, The MMGs are amazing! Not simply “amazing for the money”, but flat out amazing. The soundstage is open and expansive, the tonal reproduction is exceptional, the speed and detail are mind-boggling at times. They truly have the ability to reproduce certain types of music with a scary accuracy and realism. |
| AudioReview – DPS writes -I have had a pair of MMG’s for about six months and will most likely quit searching for the elusive audio nirvana I’ve been chasing since the mid 70′s. The simple fact is these speakers provide a window into my music tastes that cannot be duplicated by any other available speaker any where near this price. |
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| Magneplanar |
| MMG C |
| $299 |
| Promo Code 1001 |
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| Magnepan |
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| Magneplanar |
| MMG W |
| $325 pair |
| Promo Code 1001 |
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| Magnepan |
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| Paradigm Reference Monitor 7 ~ $800 |
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| hometheaterreview.com – Soundstaging and imaging are both superb with the Monitor 7s. The Monitor 7s’ soundstage is as deep as it is wide and very nicely detailed and natural in its presentation. In terms of imaging, especially center focus, the Monitor 7s react much more like mini monitors than floor-standing loudspeakers. |
| AudioReview – 98 Reviews 4.55 of 5 Spock1234 writes – This is especially obvious when listening to Jazz and Blues recordings which contain male voices and acoustic guitar segments. The bass extension is low enough to ‘feel’ the music, but it never sounds ‘boomy’. The single best thing about these speakers is that they are ‘Neutral’. If you are used to listening to other speakers that make the music sound ‘shrill’ or ‘boomy’, the Monitor 7s may sound a little ‘flat’ initially. But after you listen to them for a day or two, you will appreciate of the neutrality the Monitors. |
| reviews.digitaltrends.com writes – The highs are sweet, the mids are richly detailed, and the bass is tight and accurate. Our only complaint is that the midrange could be a little richer on some vocal recordings. Additionally, the finish on these speakers left little to be desired in terms of a luxury finish – but now knowing their true price, we feel this is almost an uncalled for assessment. |
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| Polk Audio TSi500 ~ $800 |
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| Bestcovery.com – Polk’s TSi500 floorstanding speakers are well designed with excellent build quality and finish for the money. The sound quality and especially the bass are very good. Music is lively with clean detail and highs. These speakers have a whopping four 6.5†drivers that deliver strong bass. The frequency range is rated at 28Hz-25kHz. They work well for both home theater and music listening. |
| AudioReview – 2 Reviews 5.00 of 5 – pvsat writes – the best performance in the upper entry segment. I moved from a set of polk R300s to these and yes they make a huge difference in the sound. I feel the room shake during explosion and low bass sequences. They image very well..the image size increased about 2-3 times from the r300s when listening in 2 channel. |
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| Fluance ES-1 ~ $400 |
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| Amazon.com reviewer Richard Hebbourn – Although I’ve heard quite a few good things about the ES1 speakers, I was still surprised by the amount of bass that comes through them. The highs are even better – each note is crisp and defined, and the sound fills my entire house. |
| AudioReview – 9 Reviews 4.11 of 5 – writes – My lucky day! Awesome speakers when coupled with a sub for frequencies below 70Hz. I power them with a 120 watt per channel HK Stereo (yes I said stereo) reciever and run them through a 15 band equalizer just to tweak them ever so slightly. Add a 12 inch 150 watt sub and CD’s, Movies, and Concert DVD’s rock! Don’t let the fact they won’t cost ya an arm and a leg fool you, these may be the best deal in HiFi to be had in a long time! |
| AudioReview – writes – First few weeks, these speakers were breaking in. They sounded distinctly harsh. After the break-in period, however, they REALLY smoothed out. I would highly recommend them as excellent value. They look good (my wife likes them) and they sound very good. |
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| Featured Merchants |
| Klipsch RF-52 ~ $660 |
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| AVguide.com – Few affordable systems offer a more compelling blend of detail, finesse, and dynamic clout plus an almost magically vibrant quality that brings music and movies alive. Bravo, Klipsch. |
| AudioReview – 1 Reviews 5.00 of 5 -Â boorat writes – Amazing, crisp sound! Will wake the neighbors with no distortion. Crystal clear highs and smooth, tight punchy bass. I can hear every instrument on it’s own. My sound dream come true! Highly recommend these!! Not too big, not too small. My receiver is the DENON AVR 5700 (140 watts per channel). |
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| Featured Merchants |
| Cerwin Vega CLS-215 ~ $1000 |
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| sbobbby2679 – AudioReview – … I know, Cerwin Vega has a name that some “audiophiles†sneer at a bit, calling them things like “frat house speakersâ€. I’d urge you to google “CLS-215″ and read some of the reviews that several audio writers have given them, people who are used to reviewing some very high-end stereo equipment. I haven’t found a bad review yet… |
| RG – AudioReview And they sound quite good to boot. If I was in the market for $1000 pair of speakers these would be a consideration – even for female vocals, classical, and jazz. Not perfect but nothing is and I like them better than than most for this money. |
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More Floorstanding speakers on AudioREVIEW.
Yes, unfortunately, an Editorial list won’t, and probably couldn’t include everyone’s personal favorite speaker. So, if you think we left a great sub $1000 speaker out, comment. Let us and others know why you think it should be included. Help those in our community who are searching for speakers. Be detailed if you can about sound, music style, and room set up. It is great appreciated.
Follow this link if you are Interested in Best Speakers Under $2,000
Featured Merchants
4.88 of 5 – sburken writes – all four drivers blend together for a warm sound that can be played to exceptionally loud levels without being fatigueing. however, these speakers do not shine when played with very harsh material (IE metal), they shine beautifully when tasked with rock through classical though
4.72 of 5 – 
4.11 of 5 – 
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