Embarrassed....Audio furniture help


Well, I swore I'd never let a woman dictate my two channel system but here we are.  Wife and I bought our first new home, I've got a small but adequate second living area for my system.  Problem is, as mentioned, my wife.  Setup will consist of CD player, AppleTV unit and integrated amp.  May add a streamer at some point but we'll cross that bridge later.  I'm using a pair of bookshelves and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Here's the rub....She is demanding an A/V credenza, so speakers sitting on the credenza on either side of the TV.  Of course I'd love a vertical audio stand and be able to use speaker stands but it's too open, too many exposed cables, blah blah, you know the story.  

Question of the day:  can anyone point me in the right direction?  I need minimum 18" depth and all the awful Crate and Barrel stuff she recommends isn't up to my audio standards.  Needs something with doors for a clean look but I still need my IR signal to work.  Because the speakers aren't going on stands, I'd like something at least 20" tall.  A lot of the fashionable stuff is 14-16" tall, putting the tweeters way below ear level in the listening position.  

Any help would be much appreciated.  

Sincerely,

Man shaking his head with a borderline resigned look


cjlundberg
For most high-end speakers, putting them on a shelf seems to be a bad idea - uncontrolled speaker/shelf vibration interactions, reflected backwaves and sidewaves can muddy the music, speaker height may not be adjustable/ideal.  

@cjlundberg 
If you find the speaker positioning unsatisfactory sonically but cannot change the speaker's location from the shelf, then you may want to go the headfi (headphones/earphones) route.

Some may call it henpecked, others may say it's self preservation.  Usually, it's somewhere in the middle.
I follow Andrew Robinson on youtube. He has a cool credenza he uses made by a company called BDI

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F3DS1N2?ref=exp_andrewrobinson_dp_vv_mw&th=1&psc=1

The front panels are acoustically transparent and allow the uv signals to pass through. The back panels can be removed. Also includes a safety strap for the TV.
there is no reason you could not put a base under the speakers on top of the furniture to get the tweeters seated ear level. find something, stack of vintage bricks, have a local shop make what you need.

iow, if you find some darn nice smaller speakers, you can make em work.

think about proper TV height, neck position watching. We used temporary stacks of books under our tv to decide the height, then figured out the height of the furniture, it will be taller than you think (good, taller fits more inside).

thus the speakers will be higher than you think, soooo you might use the speakers horizontally, soooo get a unit wide enough for that, or, a modular system where you could add a unit in the future: suppose you want to go wider to add a TT some day?

why doors? or, a modular system where some parts have doors, some don’t.

after you are done, you might thank the wifey!