I spent years thinking that smaller "bookshelf" speakers were inferior to bigger boxes and then I tried a pair of KEF LS50 Meta speakers because I could afford them. The imaging is immediately captivating and quickly becomes addictive. For my ears, they do require a subwoofer to sound right. Nice video, you covered a lot of ground.

Thanks for this. An informative video. 🙂

Lots of good information may also fit into your space better and I find REL is a good choice for a sub

You covered all the varying  considerations very well. 👍

Excellent John...you're a natural !

Excellent advice. You have given us a lot to consider. Many thanks.

My bookshelves are already filling my listening room and my subwoofer has to be adjusted down in gain and crossover.  I'd love to have towers but I can't justify them other than they look cooler.

Or a speaker like GE T66 which has active sub where you can dial in the bass gain

Nice review. I've been running the Carbon 7 SE Mk IIs for a while now and what struck me most is how revealing they are of upstream components. Swap amps or preamps and you hear the difference immediately—these speakers just get out of the way and let you hear what's feeding them.

Fritz uses a series crossover design that keeps things simple—fewer parts in the signal path. You can actually see the impedance and phase measurements on his site, and they're pretty smooth, which explains why they work well with different amps. I've driven them with both solid state and tubes without issues.

The drivers are ScanSpeak—a lighter mid/bass unit and the Illuminator tweeter. Together with that crossover, they create a coherent soundstage that doesn't call attention to itself. Everything just locks into place spatially.

At around $3K, they're competing with speakers that cost double. They're handbuilt in the US by Fritz himself, which matters if you care about that sort of thing. Worth searching forums and YouTube if you're curious—there's a fair amount of discussion out there from actual owners, not just reviews.

Good video. Keep in mind that many of us are unable to listen to speakers in person. There simply is no hifi store within 4 1/2 hours from where I live. Oh, well there's Best Buy, but they don't have much...maybe 3 different speakers and none that I was interested in. That said, I depend upon reviews to give me feedback in order to make a buying decision.

Very well done !

Hi. That was helpful. As i have only a smallish room and also like to try out lots of configurations i go for stand mount speakers with a couple of subs. I have x6 systems set up and mess about chopping and changing 17 pairs of speakers (at present). Of course i would like to try more speakers! My speakers are from £225 to £800 coupled with amps from £350 to £1000.

Team both.

I had a pair of active stand-mounted speakers, which I used both for music and connected to my TV.  The sound was good, but I realised that I could fit a pair of floor-mounted speakers in the same place.  Allowing for better overall sound and a little more bass (I do not have the space for a subwoofer).  

So after doing some research, I bought a Roksan K3 integrated amplifier, and then a pair of Focal K2 Aria 926 speakers, and moved the stand mount speakers upstairs into my office.

This is a very good explanation. Until recently, I had a pair of PMC Fact 12's. My listening room is fairly small so the speakers had to be placed close the wall, although this did not result in excessive bass. However, after trying the Dynaudio Confidence 20 at home, I found that this works much better. I have not noticed any reduction in low bass, scale or dynamics. In fact, the bass has more character. The soundstage is far better too, both in terms of width and depth. The Confidence 20 is also more revealing, without sounding clinical. There also appears to be greater cohesion between the drivers . Having a down firing bass port helps as I can position the speakers fairly close to the wall. I am not saying that the Confidence 20 is a better speaker, it just works better in my room.

I have 4 pr of stand mount,  (2 pr that are truly nice) and 4 pr of towers. I much prefer the towers. That said it was harder to integrate my 2 subs until I picked up a used Parasound P5 preamp. The P5 has low and high pass filters that instantly made my CSS Audio 3 -TDX  towers sound almost perfect.
I had messed around with gear for years ring top get the sound I wanted. While I don't think I'll ever be exactly " there" where i stop messing with equipment, setup and speaker placement i do think I'm pretty happy with it.
I've recently found it really enjoy  well made class D amplification from my Class D DIY stereo Nilia amp. I've ordered  another power supply and wiring harness to add to the stereo amp that believe will double the output from 300 watts at 4 ohms to 5 or 600 watts. The amp is so clean and punchy with tower speakers beating out all my other amps ie: Musical Fidelity, Outlaw Monos, Parasound and others
Great video! Liked and subscribed.

I do like your presentation style

I have a Stand mount set-up. My room size drives this. We live in a golden age of small standmounts. I chose Fyne but I could happily live with any of the usual suspects. What is critical though is the stands themselves. I got mine 2nd hand and I had to move them 1 at a time. They are really heavy. They are fitted with carpet piercing spikes and I use ( this might be contentious) I use Blu- Tack to secure the speakers to the stands. I'm still tinkering with that but cheap light stands which are at the wrong height are the worst thing you can do to your speakers.

Team both. In the house Linn Keilidh in 30 m2 room, in apartment Kef R3 on stands, 20 m2. Jazz and Classic. Possition is the key... All the best from 55 y old hi fi entusiast...

Great video thx,

Ran BS w 1.7i's extra SPL