Best Floor-Standing / Tower Speakers
Sometimes a normal setup of speakers, like a bookshelf speaker system, just doesn’t cut it. We want to have a more powerful sound filling our living spaces, so we reach out to the big bad tower speakers.
I always feel a strange excitement when I see a speaker that is so large that it is reaching up to my chest. My first question is the same as anybody’s. How will these sound on max volume? Will I even be able to stand in front of them? Yeah. It’s best if I sit down before I try them.
| Tower Speaker Name | Sensitivity | Product Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
  | 1. Polk Audio Monitor 70 | 90 dB | |
  | 2. Pioneer SP-FS52 Andrew Jones | 87 dB | |
  | 3. Klipsch R-26F | 97 dB | |
  | 4. JBL Arena 180 | 88 dB | |
  | 5. Samsung TW-J5500 2.2 | 65 dB | |
  | 6. Onkyo SKF-4800 | 86 dB | |
  | 7. Yamaha NS-F150 | 88 dB | |
  | 8. Fluance XL7F | 89 dB | |
  | 9. SVS Prime | 88 dB | |
  | 10. KEF Q500 | 87 dB |
Most of us think that 5.1 surround speaker systems are the way to go and lose sight of the good old alternatives. Floor-Standing Tower Speakers are a sure way to fill your room with roaring sound waves and to piss off your neighbors. They provide the material for building the sound system of your dreams.
Choosing the right setup of floor-standing speakers is an important decision, because it will stick with you for the upcoming years. It will define the quality of your multimedia experiences and if you pair a good set of speakers with a good receiver, you’ll definitely get a satisfying sound quality.
Only you can make this happen and we can help you with it. Education is the way to making the right decision and to creating the sound system you desire.
With this article, we intend to share with you the various technical details that have to do with floor-standing tower speakers and to show you which are currently the best.
Best Floor Standing Tower Speakers
Now that you know what’s what, you can finally look at all the greatest tower speakers with a pair of clearer, more educated eyes. So, without further ado, let’s get down to it!
– Polk Audio Monitor 70 Series II Floorstanding Speaker
Now here’s an absolutely huge, monstrous floor standing speaker that weighs about 50 pounds. It has 4 pieces of 6.5-inch Bi-laminate composite dynamic balance drivers that offer excellent bass and very low distortion.
This speaker has a really intimidating look and would happily take its rightful place in your family’s entertainment system. It is also a budget oriented speaker, so you don’t have to reach down too deeply into your pocket to enjoy the high quality sound it has to offer.
The clarity of sound we got from this beast is simply amazing. They pick up everything, every bit of signal that comes out of your TV, DVD player or console. It’s an amazing experience.
The Polk Audio Monitor 70 Series II has some pretty awesome specs as well. A frequency response rate within a range of 40 Hz and 24 kHz ensures that you hear even the crackle of leaves clearly, as you’re watching a movie.
The sensitivity is 90 DB, which helps you get the maximal sound quality from the device you’re watching your movies or listening to music from. It is able to handle power up to 275 watts, which helps it fill the room with as much roaring sounds as you would like. But it does require a monster amplifier to produce those low notes.
As I mentioned, this tower speaker is huge, the perfect building block for your very own sound fortress. It has a width of 7-3/4″ and height of 42″.
If the look of the drivers is bothering you or you would like it to have a much cleaner look, just snap the acoustic transparent grill on to the front.
The enclosure of the speaker is all-MDF. It has a very sturdy build, so it doesn’t resonate at all even with the bass and volume set to the max. It helps you have an absolutely clear, more lifelike sound. The Polk Audio Monitor 70 Series II gives off excellent bass with low distortion.
If you’re looking for a truly massive and powerful speaker that gives off a crisp clear sound, but still keeps your budget in check, this will definitely suit you well. It is one of the best and most low cost models out there, so you’ll easily get a liking to it!
– Pioneer SP-FS52 Andrew Jones Designed Floor standing Loudspeaker
Pioneer has been producing some top quality audio gear over the years, even the headphones on me right now are manufactured by Pioneer. People are mostly satisfied with this brand and associate it with high-end sound systems for a reason.
The Pioneer SP-FS52 Andrew Jones Designed Floor standing Loudspeaker is a lean and elegant looking speaker that doesn’t spare anything when it comes to sound quality and power. It is one of the best-selling entry-level floor standing speakers.
There are currently no other speakers in this price range that provide such a good sound quality. You can easily compare this speaker to more high priced models, when it comes to sound quality. But it does have a few drawbacks of course.
The SP-FS52 is a three-way, 4 driver speaker, the Drivers and the crossover networks were designed by Pioneers chief engineer, Andrew Jones himself.
This is a medium size speaker with 35” of height and 9” width and 11” deep, the weight is about 25 pounds, so it is overall pretty compact. It has the Ash Black veneer color, which makes it have a really classy look.
On the back, you’ll find two ports, where the air is pushed out and sound distortion is minimized. You’ll also find a single pair of binding posts that can accept bare wires or banana terminated speaker cables.
The bass response is really well developed and full sounding. It comes from three 5-1/4“ drivers. You can really feel a deep and resonant bass pounding at your ear drums even in the opposite corner of the room. It will sound really good even without a subwoofer.
It also has a 1’ high efficiency soft dome tweeter that provides smooth, high frequency sound reproduction, even if you set it to max volume.
Overall, this speaker would suit anyone who is looking for the best sound quality at a price tag that’s easy to reach.
The Pioneer SP-FS52 would go head to head with some of the most high-end models out there, only with the difference that you don’t have to spend as much money on it.
– Klipsch R-26F Floorstanding Speaker
Standing as a tall and powerful masterpiece is the Klipsch R-26F Floorstanding Speaker, one of the most clear sounding tower speakers. Klipsch is known for manufacturing some of the best speaker sets out there.
This one is consistent with Klipsch’s design, by having copper covered drivers and a very sturdy build. It is big, intimidating and powerful, but what more is there?
To top off, this is a budget friendly model, so people can finally get that higher end sound quality that a speaker from a top manufacturer like Klipsch is able to produce.
So if you’re looking for speakers for your home theater system or just want to throw the loudest house parties, this is a good place to start.
As I mentioned, design of this cabinet is similar to other Klipsch speakers. On the back, it has two sets of binding posts, through which you can connect it to an amplifier.
If you want to protect the drivers, you can use the flexible, acoustic transparent grill to cover the speaker and give it a much more refined look.
This speaker comes with two 6.5” copper-spun high output IMG woofers, which produce the low range sounds. Above them is a horn shaped, linear travel suspension tweeter.
Klipsch is very well known for their horn technology, since it really gives off beautifully clear high-pitch sounds. On the bottom, there’s a front firing port that maximizes the air flow and minimizes the sound distortion. The R-26F definitely boasts some good quality bass.
The frequency response rate is within the range of 38Hz – 24 kHz, which makes it very accurate and clear sounding. The crossover point is about 1,800 Hz while the sensitivity of the speaker is 97dB – 2.83V. This is a pretty powerful speaker, putting out 100 W of power.
So, what kind of people is this speaker for? Well, it’s for anyone who wants to enjoy high quality sound in their living room or any medium large space, while still keeping their budget in check.
The Klipsch R-26F Floorstanding Speaker is a cost effective solution to finally have your dream sound system built!
– JBL Arena 180
Yet another classy looking speaker set that comes in pairs. I introduce to you the JBL Arena 180 floor standing loud speaker that might just be the finest addition to your home entertainment system setup.
It looks beautiful on the outside and packs a lot of power on the inside. It is a follow up to the previous model, the Arena 170 speaker and has brought an added driver and a lot more power.
With two powerful woofers and a tweeter, it creates some incredibly well-balanced sounds and fills a medium size room with the rich contents of your music and movies.
The two drivers are 7-inch (178 mm) in diameter, large enough to give off all the necessary power for you to be able to enjoy all of your multimedia at its fullest. These will definitely help you enrich the experience you have with your TV shows, movies and video games.
On the top, there is the 1” soft dome tweeter that takes care of high pitch sounds. It delivers crisp clear and powerful highs at an astonishing quality.
The drivers have optimal positioning and network integration, which enables them to have an ideal performance. They also do lifelike soundstage imaging, which further deepens the experience.
The cabinet is incredibly well built and sturdy. It has enough weight, so that you won’t make it fall over if you bump into it on a bad day. It also has enough resistance for it to not resonate when you push the limit of what the speaker can produce.
Its shape, color and the nice wooden touch provides a very sophisticated modern look.
The JBL Arena 180 is one of the most awesome deals here, since you can buy the two speakers at the price of one. Budget conscious people will definitely like doing business this way.
– Samsung TW-J5500 – 2.2
Get ready to experience powerful stereo sound and deeper, richer bass and clarity at high frequencies with the TW-J5500 2.2 channel Sound Tower. Now there’s a sentence you haven’t heard before, right?
Definitely, but the Samsung TW-J5500 still delivers the modern look and the high quality experience of other Samsung products.
It is the first speaker system on this list that has a wireless connection, enabling you to listen to your music through Bluetooth. The dynamic 2.2 channel sound definitely enriches the experience by a great deal.
The TW-J5500 Sound Tower is a lot more convenient than other floor standing speakers and not just because of the Bluetooth connection. You can also connect a receiver or a TV through the axillary inputs.
There’s also a power input, with an extended wire and an optical input as well. You can listen to FM radio with this model too.
On the sides, there are two USB inputs, through which you can plug in your USB device to listen to music, or you can make recordings through it too, and save your files into mp3.
There is also a HDMI to HDMI cable which you can use to connect it to your TV or any other entertainment system you might have in your living room.
The front of the speakers looks simply awesome. They have a really modern shape with a glossy finish. It also has a LED screen that just melts into the design and you won’t even see it unless it’s turned on. This helps you see what you’re actually doing with the remote.
The remote offers plenty of options and presets for voice effects, which help you enrich your experience by a great deal. But even if you don’t even touch the remote, the sound quality will be purely amazing in itself.
Every song I’ve heard from this speaker was on almost max volume and it had no problems producing outstanding sounds. The bass is very accurate, well-timed and rich. The high pitch sounds come through clearly, which gives way to a truly joyful sound experience.
You can fill the room and make the floor and windows shake with the bass. It’s truly powerful but you don’t want to burn it out by over using all that power.
The convenience and awesome sound quality of the Samsung TW-J5500 comes at a hefty price. Samsung demands a lot of money for this pair of speakers, but in return it will bring you convenience and compatibility unlike any other speaker out there.
– Onkyo SKF-4800 2-Way Bass Reflex
The Onkyo SKF-4800 floor standing speaker might seem like something that they’ve seen before for a lot of people. It is a lean and robust floor standing speaker with two drivers (woofers) and a tweeter on top.
It is an awesome pair of speakers. I’ve heard few speakers produce sound that is vivid enough to make you feel like you’re listening to live music, but this one really does the trick. The sound by itself speaks for itself!
These speakers also come in pairs, which means you get a pretty awesome deal, since single speakers come at the same price as the Onkyo SKF-4800 speaker pair does. It boasts a pair of 16 cm cone woofers that put out a really satisfying bass.
I said this single sentence plenty of times while reviewing the above mentioned speakers as well, but these are really good. The two way bass reflex really shines and fills the room, shaking the floor and window.
Thanks to the woofer equalizers, these woofers have a very fast and accurate response, making all the bass drops precisely timed.
The 2.5 cm soft-dome tweeter handles the high tones really well. High pitched sounds are crisp clear and enjoyable throughout a huge variety of music, movies and other sound elements.
It can also handle a lot of power and turn it into roaring sound. You can plug in a max power of 130 Watts through the banana plug compatible speaker posts.
So who is the SKF-4800 2-Way Bass Reflex speaker set for? Well first off, anyone who wants to enhance their entertainment system with a truly powerful stereo speaker set. Also for those who wish to do this while they are on a budget.
– Yamaha NS-F150 Floor Standing Speaker
Yamaha is known to produce some top-notch audio gear and has been doing so steadily over the recent past as well. When I first heard the bass punching from this outstanding speaker, my mind was blown.
The drivers just shake and keep pushing out accurate bass. So for me it’s a winner. But what kind of specifications and quality does it deliver? Let’s see!
Exterior wise, the Yamaha NS-F150 is simple, sturdy and solid. It has a piano black color with a mirror finish. This adds to its cool and serious look. This speaker set will look awesome in any room, thanks to its simplicity and elegance.
The Yamaha NS-F150 is pretty big too. It looks best if you put it on the two sides of your entertainment system. With the dimensions of 7-7/8″ width x 40-1/2″ height x 14-1/4″ depth, it will definitely take up some space, but fill the room with great quality sound in return.
Inside the cabinet, there are two 6-1/2” drivers, which deliver the powerful bass and the 1” soft dome tweeter that takes care of high pitch sounds. Together, they make one mean sound system.
The frequency response rate moves between a frequency range of 37 Hz – 30 kHz. The Yamaha NS-F150’s normal input power is 50 W but it can handle 180 W at max. With a sensitivity of 88 dB/2.83 V/1 m, it gives off sounds that are very accurate, making your favorite songs sound at their best.
– Fluance XL7F High Performance Three-way
Fluance is a company located in Canada, but has stayed under the radar until now. They have been silently making awesome speakers and have finally seen the sunlight.
They manufacture some outstanding, low-cost speakers that perform really well and still manage not to break the bank.
The Fluance XL7F has an outstanding sound quality and build quality which makes it a sure winner in audio enthusiasts’ eyes.
They are aesthetically nice and would complement just about any living room environment, thanks to the beautiful wooden cabinet. It has a black ash wood grain finish but you can choose to have a number of other color finishes. The black one looks the most solid in my opinion.
The walls of the cabinet are reinforced, so that they don’t shake or resonate at all once you crank up the volume to max. This is an incredibly well-built speaker for its price tag and would definitely please an audio junkie to the fullest.
Superior components ensure that you get an outstanding sound quality. Taking care of the high tones is an outstanding 1 inch neodymium pure silk dome tweeter. It offers a high-frequency response, making absolutely sure that you get those crisp clear high tones.
Next is a great pair of 6.5 inch polymer-treated midrange drivers that deliver some rich sounds. It’s clean and accurate through every tone, which will make listening to a song a much more lively experience.
The 8-inch down firing subwoofer offers longer excursion because it is a long-throw subwoofer. It brings accurate bass drops without any distortion whatsoever. These speakers make it seem like there’s a separate sub-woofer in the room. So you don’t have to go out of your way to get a subwoofer!
The Fluance XL7F is an outstanding pair of premium speakers that offer a quality of sound which beats the price by a great deal. It’s almost too good to be true!
– SVS Prime Tower Speaker
We saved one of the best for last, not just because of the dramatic effect, but because this is a really pricy model.
The SVS Prime Tower Speaker is a premium model with some of the best, premium quality components, which brings you an outstanding sound quality. It looks like a piece of heavy weaponry and it definitely does feel like a weapon once you feel its sound waves bursting towards you!
This speaker system has great sounds, great looks and an outstanding build. What more do you need? These are a pair of tall speakers that feature a 3.5 way design, with a dedicated mid-range driver, two bass drivers and an aluminum tweeter.
The two bass drivers are both differently tuned, so they enrich the quality of deeper sounds by a great deal. You probably don’t need a subwoofer beside these speakers if you’re not living in a massive gallery or a huge open space.
The SVS Prime offers great sound for such a large investment, whether you’re watching movies, listening to music or seeking to enjoy any other kind of audio experience.
This is why many audio enthusiasts choose this speaker to be their main source of sound within their living room or studio. It just works and will continue to work really well, offering the highest sound quality you could hear on the market.
You haven’t seen a speaker driver shake as beautifully and smoothly as this beauty does.
If you’re looking for a truly premium experience that will bring the best out of all your music and movies, the SVS Prime is the one for you.
Knowing Your Speakers
It’s easy to just look at a speaker and decide whether you like how it looks and sounds or you don’t. In its essence, what you want is a good quality experience that lets you enjoy your music and movies to their fullest, but to get there you have to first understand a few basic speaker specifications.
The Number and Types of Drivers
Because floor standing speakers are huge most of the time, they have a lot of room for multiple drivers, which they always put to good use. Usually, a floor standing speaker has about 3 drivers but they tend to go way above that. The more drivers a speaker has, the more refined the sound field of the speaker will be.
There are a number of different drivers, each producing a different frequency of sound waves. The human ear is capable of hearing sound between a 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz frequency range.
The size of a particular driver depends on the frequency range of the sound it was made to emit. If it is made for high frequency sounds than it is smaller, take the tweeter for example. Those that are made for low frequency sounds are larger, like the subwoofer for example.
There are four different types of drivers.
Midrange Drivers
All the drivers are important in a speaker, but midrange drivers are the most important when it comes to music. They give off sound between a 500 Hz and 2,000 Hz frequency range, into which the sound of instruments and human voice falls within.
Tweeters
Tweeters are the smallest parts of the speaker and they deliver the highest pitch sounds. The name came from the distinctive high pitched sound of birds tweeting. They produce sounds within a 2,000 Hz and 30,000 Hz frequency range. As we discussed, you won’t hear much above a frequency of 20,000 Hz, so a tweeter with a 30,000 Hz frequency range is over the top.
There are different types of tweeters in floor-standing speakers, such as:
- Cone Tweeters – These tweeters are really small and shaped like a cone. You’ve probably seen plenty of these being used mostly for their stability and stiffness. It’s best if you go with fabric cone tweeters or metal cone tweeters. There are paper ones as well, but they tend to distort the sound.
- Dome Tweeters – They have a superior sound range and sound dispersion, thanks to their largely supplanted cones. These tweeters usually don’t have a frame or basket, they are attached to the magnet assembly and placed on a simple front plate. Dome tweeters are usually made out of thin but strong materials. These include various thin metals, polymer, and silk among others.
- Horn Tweeters – A horn tweeter has a horn structure, like that of a handheld loud speaker. These tweeters can control the directivity. The larger their horn is, the lower frequency is at which they can operate. These tweeters have a different sonic signature than dome tweeters.
Woofers
As you have probably guessed it, Woofers got their name from the low pitch noise of dog barks, they are woofing! They deliver a lower frequency sound between a frequency range of 40 Hz and 1,000 Hz. The superior bass coming from woofers is what attracts a lot of people to buy a bigger, better speaker setup rather than a regular bookshelf speaker system.
SubWoofers
Subwoofers have the lowest sound frequencies among all the other drivers. The sounds they produce are within the frequency range of 20 Hz and 200 Hz. These produce non-directional sounds, which means that you have a lot more freedom in where you place them in your room.
Know The Terminology
You’ll come across a lot of different specifications as you go about choosing the right speaker for yourself. By understanding the basic terms used to describe a speaker’s performance, you can make much better choices and know more about what you’re buying. This includes terms like sensitivity, frequency response rate, impedance, number of drivers, driver types. Drivers, we already explained in the upper section and now for the rest. Here we’re going to explain the different terminologies that you’ll often see as you’re browsing for your perspective speaker.
Sensitivity
The sensitivity of the speaker measures how fast a speaker can turn the received power into sound waves, which is measured in decibels. The bigger the sensitivity of the speaker, the less time it consumes to do this. For example, if a speaker has a sensitivity of 45 decibels, it will need 50 watts of power to produce volume. The greater the sensitivity, the less power the speaker will need to produce sound. So if a speaker has 90 decibels, it will require 25 watts of power.
Frequency Response Rate
The frequency response rate is the sound range in which the speaker can produce sound. Most of the speakers have a frequency response rate between 20 Hz and 20 KHz, which is the frequency range of human hearing.
Conclusion
Whatever kind of multimedia or entertainment center you want to enjoy in your home, one of the most important components in them is a good pair of speakers. Either of the ones enlisted here will make you feel like you’re much closer to the action and will fill your room with the rich sounds of the media you’re enjoying. Some are ridiculously well-priced and provide an astonishing sound quality, while other are more premium and demand a premium price too.
It’s up to you and your budget to decide, but I hope that you’ve found a speaker system that appeals to you and that you’ve learnt something new today!
Featured Image:Flickr
