Can a monitor sound like a floorstander??

If you don't need to go absolutely to the very rock bottom on the bass, then I'd check out the Intuitive Design Summit PSL 624. I owned Paradigm Studio 100 V 3's before that (for about a year), which are floorstanders. I think the Summits have better bass than those did, and that's quite respectable. Their bass rolls off around 40 hertz, and that's very similar to all but the largest floorstanders. If you really, absolutely MUST have a totally full range system, which is what I insisted upon for myself, then adding a sub-bass unit is a consideration. The best one of those I've heard is the one I own, a Rel Storm 3.

At any rate, I've posted an extremely detailed review about the Summits, complete with photos, just a couple days ago. It's under "Loudspeakers" in the "Product Reviews" category. These are fabulous for ALL program material, including classical, as I describe in the review.

The shortest answer is that these go very, very low by themselves, especially for a monitor, and yet the midrange doesn't suffer at all. Getting the best bass out of these does require a good amp with lots of current, but that's really true of just about ALL speakers, except PERHAPS the ones with extremely high efficiency.

Ozzy62 said:

"By going with a large stand mounted monitor + sub, you can get into the mid to upper 30s with the monitor, then have the sub finish the job while locating each where it sounds the best. And if the subwoofer is worth it's salt, there won't be any integration issues either."

I would have to agree with that. It certainly seems to be the case with my Summits, which have a rolloff stated to be around 40 hertz. It has been necessary to set the crossover point on the Rel Storm 3 to 27 hertz to avoid overwhelming bass.

As I tried to point out earlier, the Summits have, in my room at least, a dynamic range very similar to that of the prior speaker I owned, the Paradigm Studio 100 V3. I think the bass is actually BETTER on the Summits. When I first listened to the Summits in the store, I had no idea that they were so small, with the bottom part being the stand.

Goatwuss, I agree that no monitor will reproduce the extreme low frequencies of a gargantuan floorstander, but some such units actually seem to be monitors themselves, except that they have the monitor stacked on top of the bass unit. At this point, the two configurations begin to overlap.

A better question might be this one: Can a floorstander without a subwoofer sound as good as a monitor with one or two subwoofers (IF the subwoofer(s) is/are set up optimally)? This is a particularly important question with respect to the speakers' agility and soundstaging characteristics. In my subjective experience, most floorstanders (except for the Audio Physic Caldera, retail ~20K or more) simply do not image as well as most GOOD monitors I've heard, even within the same product line. For example, I thought that the Totem Tabu imaged much, much better than the Totem Shaman, although I did hear those at two different stores. Nrchy's post would seem to generally agree with this, although Avguygeorge appears to have had a very different experience, and he has changed only one component.

So, opinions on this topic vary, but are not (generally) diametrically opposed. I switched from floorstanders to "monitors" and Avguygeorge (if I'm interpreting his thread response correctly) switched from monitors to floorstanders. Both of us are happy (I'm ecstatic, actually) with the result. Bottom line: Your ears will decide for you.

Let us know what you decide to do if you get a chance. We'd like to "monitor" your progress.