Floorstanders more room dependent than standmounts ?

[Chris]

Or not ? or quite the opposite ? or nowt to do with it ?
I am thinking more of imaging than bass etc.

 

[mercalia]

well floor standers generally are bigger with bigger speakers? require bigger rooms so might be unbalanced tonally and therefore impact the imaging?

 

[davidsrsb]

You might be able to place standmounts closer to you, which will affect imaging

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Floorstanders are also more apt to interact with the floor, so placement can become more critical, ime.

 

[timola]

Floorstanders are also more apt to interact with the floor, so placement can become more critical, ime.

This is my experience too. I've heard floorstanders with good imaging and excellent top and middle, but wooly in the bass which I put down to coupling with the floor. Very few floorstanders have a fast tight bass, it nearly always reverberates into the floor, I prefer distance between the floor and the speaker. Floorstanders need to be given a lot attention to reduce the amount of sound energy they put into the floor (particularly a suspended floor).

I spoke with the Kef guys a couple of years ago about the Muons being on the second floor at the Windsor show (they sounded amazing) and they said they spent a long time placing them and discovered they had to be over the the main beam in the floor to be good in the bass department.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

This is my experience too. I've heard floorstanders with good imaging and excellent top and middle, but wooly in the bass which I put down to coupling with the floor. Very few floorstanders have a fast tight bass, it nearly always reverberates into the floor, I prefer distance between the floor and the speaker. Floorstanders need to be given a lot attention to reduce the amount of sound energy they put into the floor (particularly a suspended floor).

I spoke with the Kef guys a couple of years ago about the Muons being on the second floor at the Windsor show (they sounded amazing) and they said they spent a long time placing them and discovered they had to be over the the main beam in the floor to be good in the bass department.

Musicworks produce what I can only describe as a sort of trivet, made of PEEK, which will sit under the base, or baseplate, of a floorstanding loudspeaker. I use them under my Russell K Red 150s, and my personal view is that the effect is transformational.

 

[gamut]

In most reviews imaging is always a strong point with smaller stand mount speakers, usually because their cabinet size is smaller particularly the width which can affect the diffraction (narrower the better usually for better imaging, some speakers also use small felt strips around the tweeter to improve imaging). To improve the bass of small speakers they usually need to be place nearer to wall boundaries, this is where floorstanders with a larger bass speaker can sometimes be at an advantage as they can be placed further out into the room away from the rear wall, this I have found gives better and deeper depth imaging. So both have their advantages. In the end it is best to try both types of speaker in your room particularly as room acoustics (including any furnishings) has a major impact on how a particular speaker will sound.

 

[Rug Doc]

Floorstanding cabinets surely produce bass from a larger surface area too, so would it be far easier to have them within a bass node than it is with stamdmounts?

 

[p147]

I much prefer my speaker drivers to be at ear level and firing directly whilst seated and not at floor level therefore standmounts for me, but each one to their own.