Aerial Acoustic 5Ts vs Cheap Towers


I have a modest system down at my cabin. NAD C316BEE integrated amp with 40 wpc. It is driving a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 7 towers (tweeter, mid, 2 active and 1 passive woofer in each speaker). The room is fairly large at 20x20 with vaulted ceilings.

Recently I inherited a pair of Aerial Acoustic 5Ts. By all accounts these are superb bookshelf speakers and sell new for over $4000. They are mine to keep if I want them but if I sell them the money goes to the executor of the will which I'm fine with if they don't work out. Other than using them at the cabin I have no other real need for them.

I'm here at the cabin now and I've wired the 5Ts up to the NAD. And while they sound good, they do not sound as full and room filling as the Polk Audios ($180 used for the pair).

I have only moderate experience as an audiophile. Is this normal? Is it me? Is it just a matter of the 5Ts not able to move as much air as the towers and fill the room as well? Is the NAD insufficient to drive the 5Ts properly?

Unless there is something obvious I'm missing I'll just leave the Polks here and sell the 5Ts for the estate. The cheap Polks make more sense at the cabin anyway as they are cheap, vinyl wrapped and the 5Ts are gorgeous piano black that is just going to get dinged up down here. If there is something I'm missing I may keep them.

One potential solution is that I have a large B&W powered sub at home that I could pair with the 5Ts but that's just more stuff to stuff into the cabin. The estate came with 2 JL Audio powered subs but I already have a potential for a buyer on those.

Any advice appreciated.

George.
n80
@jl35 I’m sure that is true. And while I’d love to build the system at the cabin up to meet the quality of the 5T it really does not make sense to spend that sort of money. I do very little serious listening at the cabin so even if the funds were there, the need is not.

@luxman The system that these came with included a Bryston 9B SST2. It was part of a home theater system. I am going to be selling that and the Classe’ pre-amp that was with it. I’m sure the Bryston got the most out of the 5Ts which were being used as rear speakers.

So I will sell the 5Ts for the estate. I hate to see them go but I just don’t have the need for them. It will benefit the beneficiary of the will plus I got a pair of Aerial Acoustic 6Ts with Transparent Super cables and an Oppo CD player in the deal so I cannot complain.

Thanks for the advice.
George
I have a pair of 5T's w/a Bryston 2.5 SST2. 180 wpm into 4 ohms. I'm also using a JL Audio D-110 for the bottom. Set up correctly w/more power excellent speakers. A few years back Stereophile rated them in the Class A category.