Have you moved away from full range to standmount speakers + subs?

correction 18 wpc LM at my place w 87 db speakers….

sigh, so much gear, music, so little…time…

Nope! Went the other way: large Advent to GoldenEar Triton Reference. Wouldn't go back, even to stacked Advents.

So...I moved from Infinty Kappa 8.1s to Revel Performa 3 M105 with a Sunfire sub almost 10 years ago. The Infinity’s were a miserable load with a min 1.7ohm impedance and were hard to place. Not to mention, a bit bright with the EMIT-R Super tweeter.

The Revels were a breath of fresh air. Not only were they less bright, they were easier to drive and place. In terms of actual floor space, the Revels were similar in footprint to the Kappas but they were visually far less dominant.

They were not the be-all-end-all in terms of speaker but I didn’t need my room to revolve around the speakers to get a great image with enjoyable music and actual out-of-pocket costs adjusted for inflation were about the same between the Kappas and Revel Sunfire Combo.

I run monitors at home with the exception of the very modestly sized Vivid Kaya 45s. I have gone on to design DIY stand mounts and now have stand-mounts in commercial production (Verdant Audio) due to a general struggle to find a stand-mount I like much better than the Revels about 4 years ago.

The thing is, a properly designed stand-mount with a subwoofer can be more flexible than a floorstanding speaker and sound darn close to as good. There are a million caveats in terms of sub integration, etc... but at a root level it is true.

There are many factors at play

One is the aesthetics of a stand mount and the fact that they are often, less dominant in a space compared to a floor stander despite similar space requirements. My wife cares very much about this and is a driving factor in my speaker choice at home.

Second, is that in many untreated rooms, the optimal placement for bass and treble reproduction is different. Treatments can and do fix this but often create aesthetic issues. Again, my wife has made it abundantly clear that acoustic treatments are not an option. So, it actually works in my favor to have bass separated.

Regarding driving the amps, especially with lower wattage amps, poor bass response actually works in your favor as well. Often, peak volume output during a musical composition will be in the sub 60hz range. I run 45w tube amps with monitors that roll off at about 60hz at Audio Shows. I can drive them to 85-90dB all day. The key is looking at impedance and try and find a monitor that has a relatively high, minimum impedance. Mine have a min impedance of 7.3 ohms so they are a very easy load for my amps.

In the end you want to pick a speaker that is right for you and your room. If you have limitations like I do in terms of aesthetics, stand mounts are a must. If you have a dedicated room where you can modify the look any way you like, it is large enough, then a floor stander might be best.