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smaller speakers for critical listening?

I'm curious whether folks out here think that standmount speakers can reward "critical listening." 

I know that may be a ridiculous question; of course one can sit down with Radio Shack speakers and engage in serious listening, and of course the experience is subjective for all of us. I'm actually asking for subjective responses here. If your goal is a system for critical listening, do you think smaller speakers can do the trick or do you need the bigger soundstage and depth that can come with floor-standing, planar, or electrostatic speakers? 

I'm not asking which is *better* in a given speaker line, the small ones or the big ones, and I'm not thinking about $50k Wilson-Benesch Endeavours or the like. Before the pandemic I auditioned some highly enjoyable standmount speakers in the $5k-$10k range. However, listening for an hour in a store, I couldn't tell whether they crossed the threshold from "terrific sound for a small speaker" to pull-up-a-chair-and-tune-out-the-world bliss.

As you can probably tell, I'm struggling with my room; it's very hard to place big speakers in it. Otherwise I'd buy Maggies or Vandersteens or JA Perspectives, etc, and be happy. And, to repeat, I know that the threshold for critical-listening speakers is subjective. I'm asking for opinions and experiences!
northman

Showing 3 responses by prof

prof
3,486 posts
 

With the right track, when I close my eyes even the tiny Spendors can sound about as big as my floor standing speakers!
However, other content will sound decidedly smaller.
(Basically if it's a recording that contains instruments and voices recorded and mixed to sound forward and large, they can sound that way on the tiny speaker.   But with more distant, smaller image sizes the smaller speaker shrinks things a lot more - e.g. certain symphony recordings - where the larger speaker portrays things with a more consistent sense of larger scale.   That's in my experience anyway.
prof
3,486 posts
 

I'm of two minds about answering the question.
Can a stand mounted monitor be satisfying to listen to?
Hell yes!
Can it be satisfying in the long run as the only speaker to own?
Not so sure, for me.


I usually own multiple speakers, though I've cut down a bit.  Right now I own two floor standing speakers:   Thiel 2.7 and Joseph Audio Perspectives.   And three stand mounted:   Spendor S3/5s,  Waveform Mach MC, Thiel 02.


In some ways the stand mounted monitors are my reference sound for musical enjoyment.  The tone and coherence of the Thiel and the Spendors just make me swoon.    And I find I can really enjoy a wide range of music, from classical to prog rock to funk to electronic, you name it.  Even the teeny little Spendor S3/5s provide just enough bass to not make me miss the big speakers too much when listening.   If I truly want to "just enjoy the music" it seems I throw up the stand mounted speakers.




But then, being an audiophile :-) I can start to crave a bit more.   Image size, especially on the Spendors are much smaller,  on many tracks.Often that doesn't bother me because the tone is so engaging - swelling string sections make me swoon at how beautiful they sound.   But, knowing there is "more" to be had gets my itch going.   Also, sometimes I just like to crank the sound, especially to listen from outside the room when I'm on my computer down the hall, or in the kitchen.   A small speaker just runs out of steam and doesn't have a convincing punch in the bass.  



The floor standing speakers can just "slam" in that regard in a very satisfying way.


The little Spendors can do an amazing magic show in terms of spacious imaging.   But the Thiel and Joseph floor standing speakers go even further, making almost full sized flesh and blood musicians appear in a massive soundstage.   It's hard to give up those kind of sonic goodies.And when tracks play in which instruments plumb the lower frequencies, the bigger speakers can be so satisfying.   I was listening to a soundtrack on the Joseph Perspectives and there were these deep low brass section parts, and synth bursts down low that just felt so dynamicand impactful in a way the stand mounted speakers would never do.



So really I kind of go back and forth.  When I'm listening to my stand mounted speakers I often start thinking "isn't this all I need?   Wouldn't life be simpler if I just used stand mounted speakers?"  (I move speakers around).   And it lasts for quite a while.   But then I get the bigger sound itch that only the floor standers can scratch.   Hence, it's hard for me to part with all my speakers and stick with only one.




prof
3,486 posts
 

northman,
Honestly it depends on what speaker I'm in to at the moment.   I just got an LP I've been waiting for and I'm excited to cue it up on the Joseph Perspectives (which are set up because, after a while of listening to the Spendors, I got the itch for the Josephs).

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