with all receivers and processors , when you set a large speaker to small, the sub is more active, if you set the speaker to large fronts the towers do some of the load from all channels aswell as the sub, but if you have a reciever or a processor with individual crossover adjustments, you can set all speakers as small and asign the proper crossover to each channels ability, I happen to like this feature but this is only optimal when configuring all small speakers in the set-up..just my opinion...I also think that some movies are great in 2 channel, but alot need 5.1 or more to really get the WOW. I do agree that bookshelfs are the way to go, but make sure if possible that you can safely run down to 80HZ, as this is somewhat of a standard in movie encoding.
Bookshelf vs Floorstand speakers for HT????
Since front speakers are generally ran as small, is there any advantage to using floorstanding speakers vs bookshelf? I will be using a sub and this set up will be primarilly for HT. The speakers are Paradigm Studio 20 vs Studio 60's, both are version 2. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanx Chris.