Save Space and Boost Bass With These Floorstanding Speaker Subwoofer Sets
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Whether you’re downsizing, upgrading, moving into a dorm or just want more space without sacrificing audio quality, a floorstanding speaker and subwoofer combo is always a good idea.
Tower speakers take up significantly less space compared to a sound bar or traditional stereo speaker set, while taking full advantage of vertical space, easily sliding into tight spots next to your TV or in-between bookshelves. Not only are they powerful, filling up even big rooms with full sound, these floorstanding speakers make your media center stand out, creating a clean and grandiose looking (and sounding) setup.
To get the full spectrum of sound from your TV show, movie or music, you’ll want to look for a floorstanding speaker set with a subwoofer. As a general rule in any stereo, the subwoofers handle the lower end of the sound spectrum, where instruments like bass would be, while mid-range drivers and tweeters handle the high end of things. In most other stereo sets, a separate subwoofer unit is needed to not only feel the booming bass, but to take the workload off the tweeters so they can focus on producing the highs. But a floorstanding unit will usually contain the subwoofer as well as the tweeters and any mid-range producing speakers, all within one frame, meaning that the set of two towers (or sometimes even just one) are enough to experience deep, thunderous bass along with balanced mids and shimmering highs.
Besides bass, a horn on the tweeter can affect the speaker’s dynamic range and efficiency compared to a dome, which helps aim the sound at you rather than bouncing it off walls or the ceiling. Horns are usually coated in a material like compressed rubber, for removing sharpness from the outgoing sound and giving it a more natural, detailed feel.
Wattage can vary, but these are generally pretty powerful speakers, and usually blast out a range of about 100-150w — more than enough for a living room, studio apartment or den.
And for the real bassheads looking to shake the room, a separate subwoofer can still be added (and is included in some sets), but for the average user it might be a little overwhelming.
Below are four of our favorite floorstanding speaker units to start building your home audio setup from the ground up.
1. GOgroove Tower Speaker With Subwoofer
At 38 inches tall and boasting 120 watts of peak power, the sound from this tower is immense and immersive. With a frequency response of 40Hz to 20kHz, the speaker will envelope your entire room with deep and detailed audio.
A small remote is included, with a good amount of options like customization for the bass and treble levels, and selecting from four pre-sets. The Bluetooth BlueSYNC feature works fast to connect wirelessly and keeps the sound crisp, but old-school wiring is still available too, with an AUX input and a USB 2.0 port (which can also charge up your device as you’re listening). There’s a nicely lit display on the unit that tells what setting you’re on, or which station if you’re using the FM transmitter.
This isn’t designed to crank up to 11 and blow the roof off the place, but works great in smaller-sized spots like apartments, dorm rooms and offices.
2. Sony Three-Way Floorstanding Speakers
The bass from Sony’s separate sub here feels powerful, and has a well-timed response to sync up with the two included tower speakers. All three are encased in all-wood enclosures to absorb unwanted vibrations and further optimize the rich acoustics.
But the real special feature here is the Super Tweeter, which Sony designed to reach the higher frequencies up to 50kHz, going above even CD quality (which is about 44.1kHz). The resulting audio casts a wider bandwidth of high-definition sound on digital files, and really gives the full effect of high-quality file extensions like FLAC. Vocals sound especially clear, and once you figure out the best speaker placement, it can feel like the performance is happening right in front of you.
3. ABRAMTEK E600 100W Bluetooth Speaker
This ABRAMTEK portable Bluetooth speaker lets you take your tunes outside, with 100 watts of power to ensure everyone can hear your playlist, even from all directions, thanks to its 360-degree sound.
The company’s Dual Pressure Air Compression (DPAC) tech means little loss when it comes to bass too. The drivers inside rely on air pressure to thump out deep lows just like a regular, separate wired woofer would.
This is ideal for parties, picnics, patios, and poolside hangouts. One charge can last almost five hours, and for nighttime get-togethers, the purple creates a mellow mood with its backlit LED light.
4. Definitive Technology BP-9020 Tower Speaker
At 300 watts of maximum output power, the entire range of sound is packed into each of these 3.5-feet tall speakers. The set gets you an aluminum-domed 1″ tweeter up front, with dual 3.5″ mid-range front and rear facing drivers, and a powerful integrated 8″ subwoofer. This creates a beautiful sounding balance between the highs, lows, and mids, and disperses a wide blast of intact sound to every corner of your room.
It’s compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS for three-dimensional surround sound, and allows for you to adjust the bass with Intelligent Bass Control in order to achieve your preferred levels.
This features a smart structural setup as well, thanks to its bottom metal base, designed to brace the unit and reduce resonance, resulting in even cleaner sound.
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