Years ago I had very large Pioneer floor speakers. I can’t recall the model, but they sounded excellent and were fairly expensive. I had the one cat who just loved to “scratch” at them. Fortunately he was declawed on his front paws. I used to “remind” him just how lucky he was. In case anyone fears that he was poorly treated; he lived to be 18yrs old, and though he’s been gone for many years, I still miss him.

I have had many speakers since 1975 when I bought my first system. I love both. My previous house had smaller separated rooms and I had 6 systems running. Some were just bookies and some had subs and my main system had towers with a sub. My old main listening room was 13x13x8 and I had large Klipsch floor standers with a 12 inch Velodyne sub. Now I have a 20x33x9 listening room in my new house and wow, do they sound better!

Masterful!  This topic touches me on so many levels and has provoked so many thoughts.  First off, my familiarity with bookshelf speakers ties directly back to my first, decent system.  In the early 70's.  Back then it was a 'nice' pair of Yamaha 2-ways with a 10" woofer.  They were with me through high school and college.  Eventually they were replaced with my second set of towers, again Yamaha's.  At that point, they might have been a slight improvement over the bookshelf's though rather similar.  That was the mid-80's.  Other slight upgrades were also occurring though not of major. significance - just gradual.     I far prefer tower speakers for a variety of reasons.  You address one of them related to their "footprint".  Yes, they're a virtual equivalent to bookshelf speakers on stands.  However, I truly prefer and currently love my "midFi" Tannoy Revolution XT-8F towers.  Why?  Because I find that there's much improved bass with a properly designed tower.  As well, I also avoid rear-ported towers because they have too much interaction with the rear wall/corner they need to be placed in my listening room.  The Tannoy's have a tuned "tower" and are downward ported cabinets whereby they have a substantial plinth as part of the speaker and its design.  Lou, you're again spot on with regard to the depth in lower frequency "floor-standers" and the tuned resonance of the "tower", in ways is similar to a pipe organ's, lower "stops" - large wooden pipes that are tuned to a particular note.      Another concern I have with bookshelf speakers, is that anymore in today's "audiophile world", they  seems to beg for or drive the necessity for a sub-woofer.  Just being a stubborn and pragmatic individual of German heritage, I don't like that idea.  The way I figure, is that if I'm purchasing a decent pair of speakers, they should perform adequately if not better of their own accord.  Last, as it regards audio, you raise and explain another important topic; that of "the cavity itself" if, the speaker is on an actual bookshelf.  This was a problem i most recently and successfully addressed.  But my issue was with my turntable's dustcover "howling" , within its own portion of my bookshelf, where it resides in a more expanded portion of the floor to ceiling bookshelf.  That was "cured" by killing the resonance with a vibration absorbing sheet of Styrofoam craft board.  Placed under my turntable the resonance was shut off - much the same as your description of surrounding  a bookshelf speaker with a bunch of books.  Thanks!  And, thank you again for your priorities.  Yes, please do love your children more than your speakers.

I have both and love my vintage Yamaha NS-670.

There’s also the size of the room as a factor, my small room wouldn’t tolerate floor standers so I had to move to Sonus Faber stand mounts. Thank you for an interesting and informative video.

When visiting friends I mostly see surround sound systems, but when I do see a stereo setup it’s almost always bookshelf speakers on a bookshelf.

Nice video Lou...  Perhaps you can follow up with the acoustic reasons for a bookshelf vs floor standing.  You might want to edit this and add in the issue with resonance when on shelf or table/stand (isolation)...

Hi Lou.  Happy New Year! Nice channel, new subscriber here. What are those gorgeous bookshelves? I’ll have to go to your website and check them out. I’m kind of torn, literally. The mids in my floor standing vintage McIntosh XRT-18’s need a reform. So, about this time last year I picked up a pair of Klipsch RP-600M II. Needed something quick to play our Christmas records. I absolutely love them. Haven’t been in a hurry to fix the old girls. Now I’m curious to know how good other BS can be. Something like those pretty red ones…Oh this hobby. 🍻

Trying to achieve a full range sound within a small room with minimal room gain can be quite challenging. My solution was to go with standmounts (bookshelves) and have them going full range with the help of a stereo pair of subwoofers. We all know that stereo speaker positioning is crucial. However, when subwoofers are within the set-up, one doesn't just obtain more flexibility but more control, too. Which is actually an extra bonus if one happens to have one of the stereo speakers closer to its sidewall than the other!

A very intelligent video. Audio has been a hobby for me for oved 50 years, one thing I was told long ago, "What kind  of music do you primarily listen to?"  At the time (and still sometimes today) was theatre pipe organ, and now a days jazz bass. You need big speakers for this. I have had some very good bookshelf ones but they don't hold a candle to my old pair of Altec model 19's I did a test with a 5 string bass recorded on pro reel to reel tore up the bookshelf's. Just a thought.

Cost is a big reason I went with bookshelf over floor standing speakers, when I recently replaced my old speakers. One pair of decent bookshelf speakers costs less than or as much as one floor standing speaker.

How do you like those aerial 5t’s? I was interested in buying a pair.  Thanks

Bookshelf speakers better for rear position?

Bookshelves + subwoofer?

I had Maggie 1.7 and 2 cats. They loved to rub against the bottom of the speakers. What a hairy mess. I also had Klipsch LaScalas and the same cats loved crawling into the bass bins but only when they were playing. Life is never easy

Bass is weak on bookshelf speakers. Some can have nice bass, but they struggle to go deep and or, pull out the proper power expected from low frequencies.
Ok for music listening for most people. Not ok for true Hi-Fi reproduction or for those like me, specially sensible to proper bass reproduction.

So if I own bookshelf speakers I shouldn't have children

Floor speakers sound better it's really not a difficult question