Can a bookshelf speaker sound like a floor standing speaker? It's a question I get a lot, and I think the reason is that a lot of people while they believe that a floor standing speaker is always going to be better, they don't have the space for it. They actually need to put a bookshelf speaker on a cabinet or in a bookshelf, or they only have room to tuck them into a corner on stands or whatever it happens to be. Now, the answer to that question is yes, there's no technical reason that a bookshelf speaker, well-designed in the right application can't sound better than a floor standing speaker. If you have a small room, a bookshelf speaker may actually sound better than a big floor standing speaker because there's less chance of it overloading the room usually in terms of base. Now, if you've watched my base audio myth video, you'll probably recall that it's all about design.
There's nothing that says that a floor standing speaker, even if it has a bigger cabinet or more woofers, is going to produce more or better base than a bookshelf speaker, it all comes down to design. Now, there are a lot of bookshelf speakers that are not small. We have a model called the M5HP, quite large for a bookshelf speaker, but it performs very much like a floor standing speaker. We have customers telling us that all the time, it's amazing, I don't need a subwoofer with it, whatever. Don't necessarily think or be sad or upset if you don't have room or you don't have the budget for a floor standing speaker. A bookshelf speaker is not necessarily a compromise, again it all depends on design and application. In most cases if you have a small room, I will recommend to a customer always look at a bookshelf speaker first, go with your budget and your base requirements and whether or not you're going to be using a subwoofer with those speakers or not (silence).
