# Do i need front towers



## substandardnot (May 10, 2014)

Hi all, new to the forum.
So I have recently started to upgrade my speaker system. The newest acquisition being a SVS PB2000 sub woofer. With the awesome bass sound that it produces I am wondering do I need tower speakers for the front. As most of the base is going to come from the sub woofer can I just get smaller bookshelf speakers for the front or something similar to the surroundsound speakers. The crossover is going to send all of the serious base the sub woofer anyways so why would I need base producing speakers in the front.
I have already replaced the center speaker with a Klipsch center speaker so I was thinking of going with Klipsch for all the rest of the speakers.
What would you all recommend?


----------



## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

No, you do not need floor standing speakers to put together a home theater. I have both bookshelf and floor standers, personally think floor standing speakers are the way to go. Many others have a different experience and for a variety of reasons they prefer bookshelf speakers. Go with whatever works for you.

I'm not a big Klipsch fan but if you like them, by all means go with them. I would suggest you select speakers that are all from the same line ie; all Reference, Palladium or all Synergy. I like to also go with the same size drivers in all my speakers, but that's just a quirk of mine.


----------



## B- one (Jan 13, 2013)

I agree with Nova, but I like klipsch, as long as you are happy with the sound there are no true rules. I also prefer floor-standing speakers but if you want bookshelf speakers I would look at the model that matches your center best. I'm looking for some Rf-81's for height speakers personally .


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

I agree with these guys too. (Klipsch are interesting to me). I'm a floorstander guy, and while you don't need them, if you have the space, I say do it. One benefit is they usually have larger drivers, or at least larger cabs with lower tuning. I go against the grain a little and cross mine at 50hz(tried 40 too). Since most recommend an 80hz crossover, and it's likely you'll do that, floorstanders "usually" are more dynamic by nature, and are many times, easier to drive. (Higher sensitivity)


----------



## 86eldel68-deactivated (Nov 30, 2010)

substandardnot said:


> So I have recently started to upgrade my speaker system. The newest acquisition being a SVS PB2000 sub woofer.


Congrats on the new gear, especially the PB-2000. 



> With the awesome bass sound that it produces I am wondering do I need tower speakers for the front.


No. A couple of reasons you might go with towers, though, are:
- you enjoy "pure" two-channel listening (a pair of mains, no sub); and
- the price of a pair of bookshelf speakers plus a good pair of stands is similar to the price of the towers.


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I agree if you have the room for towers that's the ideal way to go but a good bookshelf coupled with the PB2000 will be great. Make sure that the bookshelf speakers go down to at least 50hz as an 80Hz crossover is not a brick wall and your speakers will need to reproduce frequencies down to around 50hz clean if you want to be able to get a smooth transition between the sub and speakers.


----------



## substandardnot (May 10, 2014)

Right now I have a pair of hand crafted speakers my father made years ago. Philips 12 inch drivers and Kef mids and tweeters. They served him well for music for years and the way he finished them make them look like some multi thousand dollar cabs. However I can't help but wonder if the towers out there are not better technology these days. 
I'd like to not spend more than $1000.00 on a pair as I want to upgrade the surrounds and rears also. 
I might be wrong here, but I don't think the fronts for my HT need to be as good as my Monitor Audio Silver 8's that I have in the music room. I expect a much higher quality of sound reproduction for music. 
Don't get me wrong. I love my movies also, but I'm thinking that for movies it's more dialogue and loud booms.
Does that make sense?


----------



## gazoink (Apr 17, 2013)

Having two huge towers for your L/R almost guarantees you'll have a mismatched center. If all you listen to is 2 channel music, you're fine. But in film soundtracks between 60 and 80% of the total sound in the room comes from the center. Yet that's the dinky little horizontal squeeker people stick under their screen and call it a day. If the world were an ideal place, all three fronts would be identical. Making the L/R huge towers pretty much eliminates that possibility unless you have an AT screen.


----------



## substandardnot (May 10, 2014)

Well that is exactly what I was thinking. This is why I am thinking more along the lines of the front L/R being more or less the same as my surrounds. Makes sense to me.


----------



## gazoink (Apr 17, 2013)

substandardnot said:


> Well that is exactly what I was thinking. This is why I am thinking more along the lines of the front L/R being more or less the same as my surrounds. Makes sense to me.


Matching L/R to surrounds is far less important because of the way the surround channels are used. In fact, in the THX world, surrounds are dipoles that are entirely different designs from mains (though in the THX Ultra2 spec they are tamre matched). Matching all 3 LCRs would be important to unifying the front soundstage. For surrounds you can try to match the general character of the mains but they don't need extended bass response.


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Which center did you upgrade to? I would guess that there is a tower in the same line that is voice matched.(dynamics could be another story) Personally, I disagree with the idea of, it's all dialog and booms. If that's what your watching movies for, then great, but IMO it's about an overall presentation. Kind of like why you bought the silvers for music. I think for an experiment, and to answer some of your questions, you should hook up your silvers and see what they do for presentation. What are your surrounds?


----------



## substandardnot (May 10, 2014)

My centre is the RC500B. Sort of looking at the 600 towers. Or what ever is reference level at least.
Yes of course I am over simplifying the "dialog and booms" notion. I know it is much more than that, there are nuances to movies also. I suppose the thing here is, I had no question spending $2400 on two channel speakers to hear my Nad and Rega gear. But for the HT there is already the cost of the SVS PB 2000 and the new centre. Also my upgrade to the new Denon. So I still need to replace the old towers, old surrounds, old rears. So cost is playing into this much more than my music room set up. Hence the "do I really need the big tower stuff up front"
In the end if the answer is yes, so be it.
The price we pay to play, huh?


----------



## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

substandardnot said:


> My centre is the RC500B. Sort of looking at the 600 towers. Or what ever is reference level at least. Yes of course I am over simplifying the "dialog and booms" notion. I know it is much more than that, there are nuances to movies also. I suppose the thing here is, I had no question spending $2400 on two channel speakers to hear my Nad and Rega gear. But for the HT there is already the cost of the SVS PB 2000 and the new centre. Also my upgrade to the new Denon. So I still need to replace the old towers, old surrounds, old rears. So cost is playing into this much more than my music room set up. Hence the "do I really need the big tower stuff up front" In the end if the answer is yes, so be it. The price we pay to play, huh?


Indeed, pay to play is right. After reading the above, it's much clearer to me the nature of your question. Seems you've been busy! IMO, the answer to your question no. You don't. For me, the question is how much do you want? Your other gear selections tell me that you'll be havin a side of buyers remorse if you "settle". Don't get me wrong, bookshelf systems can be dynamic too, but IMO, just not as much. On paper, that center seems very capable. 96db? That's one reason people love klipsch! How big is you space? Maybe that will decide for you!
Btw, what do you think of your monitors?


----------



## substandardnot (May 10, 2014)

I don't want to settle, that's for sure. I think I will keep watching for two for one deals at the Big Box stores. Best of both worlds, best price and the reason to up grade to the next up speaker.

My Monitor Audio's? Really happy with them. Listened to Mission (worst), Tannoy, Paradigm, and one or two others before finding the MA's. Loved them at the first listen. That was about 10 years back and I still giggle when I hear some of my favourite songs now. No regrets there.


----------



## ttn333 (Mar 28, 2014)

Generally speaking, small speakers sound small, large speakers sound larger. So for movies you'd want that large soundstage/front stage. I wouldn't want small satellite speakers for my front stage. There are exceptions of course. I use Totem Manitou bookshelf speakers for my front. But then again, they're not exactly small.


----------



## biscuitg303 (May 13, 2009)

IMHO, floorstanders. If you use bookshelves you're going to have to bring up your crossover on your sub and you'll be able to tell you have a "sub" vs a nicely blended overall sound from top to bottom octaves. I like not being able to tell where my mains stop and my sub starts if at all possible. I cross pretty low to achieve this. DIY sealed 13.5" JL audio car subwoofer playing up to about 50-60hz with dual 6.5" ported tower mains works well for my ears anyway.


----------

