Which speaker is right for me?
Soundbars, stereo systems, bookshelf and floorstanding speakers: what each type needs in room and floor space, how low each reaches without a subwoofer, and why a stereo pair beats a soundbar with a sub added.
Four kinds of speaker cover almost every home: a soundbar, a compact stereo system, bookshelf speakers on stands, or floorstanders. If the television is the reason you are buying and there is no room for stands, a soundbar is the honest answer. If music is the reason, a stereo pair will beat a soundbar — including a soundbar with a subwoofer added — and the reasons are mechanical rather than a matter of taste.
This guide covers all four types: what each one is, how much room and floor space it asks for, how low it reaches without help from a subwoofer, and the point at which each stops making sense.
| Type | Best for | Floor space | Stereo imaging | Bass without a subwoofer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundbar | Television, dialogue, tight rooms | None — sits under the TV | Simulated from one cabinet | Limited by cabinet size |
| Compact stereo system | Casual listening, one-box convenience | Shelf plus two small speakers | Real, but narrow if the speakers sit close | Limited by cabinet size |
| Bookshelf speakers | Music in an HDB or condo living room | Two stands, roughly 30 × 30 cm each | Real, and the easiest to place well | Ara Be reaches 45 Hz ±3 dB |
| Floorstanders | Larger rooms, full-range music and film | Dedicated floor space, plus room to breathe | Real, and holds up at higher levels | Rinjani Be 42 Hz, Sasandu 32 Hz ±3 dB |
Why a stereo pair beats a soundbar and a subwoofer
Adding a subwoofer to a soundbar is the usual upgrade path, and it does fix one thing: the bottom octave. It does not fix the other three limits, because those come from the shape of the box rather than from how much you spent on it.
- Two sources, two channels. A stereo pair puts left and right in two physically separate cabinets, so the image between them is produced the way the recording was made. A soundbar has to synthesise that separation from a single enclosure using beam-forming and psychoacoustic processing, which depends on having the right room shape and reflective side walls, and which weakens as soon as you move off the centre seat.
- Cone area and cabinet volume. A soundbar has to fit under a television, so its drivers and its internal volume are capped by that form factor. Moving air is what produces low frequencies and undistorted level; a pair of 6½″ midwoofers in proper cabinets simply has more of both to work with.
- A subwoofer only fixes the bottom. It extends low bass, but it does nothing for midrange resolution or for imaging, and one subwoofer in one corner cannot reproduce bass in stereo. Crossed over too high to cover for a small main speaker, it starts to draw attention to itself as a separate source in the room.
- You can replace one piece at a time. Separates let you change the amplifier, the source or the speakers independently. A soundbar is replaced whole.
None of this makes a soundbar a bad purchase. It makes it a different purchase, aimed at a different problem.
What are soundbars?
A soundbar is a horizontally mounted speaker in a single long cabinet, designed to sit under a television. The format began as the centre channel of a 5.1 surround system, and has since grown into compact all-in-one bars that emulate a surround setup from one box.
Soundbars are chosen mainly to save floor space. Housing in dense urban areas is expensive and apartments have grown smaller, so space is at a premium and anything that uses less of it is welcome. The bar usually sits directly below the screen, and newer models add ceiling-firing drivers for Atmos height effects within the same small footprint.
Most now include Bluetooth, which lets them take audio wirelessly from a television or a phone and keeps cable clutter down — useful in a minimalist living room where the television is wall-mounted and there is nowhere to hide a cable run.
Stereo systems
A stereo system is an amplifier feeding two speakers. You may remember the mini hi-fi units that were popular in the mid-1990s, which packed FM radio, cassette and CD playback into one chassis with a small speaker either side.
More capable systems separate each of those functions into its own box, so you can assemble the combination you actually want and change one part later without replacing everything. The result is the same in principle: a left and a right signal, sent to two speakers placed either side of the listening position.
That separation is the whole point. Everything below is about the two speakers on the ends of it — whether they stand on the floor or on stands, and how big they need to be for your room.
What are bookshelf speakers?
Bookshelf speakers are compact two-way designs meant to sit at ear height on a pair of stands, on a shelf, or on a wall bracket. They give up the deepest bass in exchange for a small footprint and, in most rooms, they are the easiest type to position well.
That flexibility is why they suit an HDB or condominium living room. Our Ara Be bookshelf speaker is a two-way of this kind: a Satori beryllium tweeter and a 6½″ Egyptian Papyrus midwoofer, reaching 45 Hz ±3 dB from a cabinet you can put on a stand.
Eric’s Hi-Fi Blog — Eric Teh on the Ara Be · read the original
AV2Day — Lam Seng Fatt, April 2022 on the Ara Be · read the original
What are floorstanding speakers?
Floorstanding speakers, also called tower speakers, stand on the floor rather than on a stand. They are larger, and the extra cabinet volume is what lets them reproduce a full range including deep bass without an additional subwoofer.
A floorstander normally carries several drivers in one tall cabinet — woofers, sometimes a dedicated midrange, and a tweeter — each covering the band it handles best. If those terms are new, our guide to what a speaker driver actually does explains the parts. Splitting the range across dedicated drivers is not exclusive to towers: the Gema three-way loudspeaker uses the same principle in a cabinet designed to sit on a stand or plinth.
Our Rinjani Be floorstander is a 2½-way reaching 42 Hz ±3 dB, and the three-way Sasandu 3-way floorstander reaches 32 Hz ±3 dB — low enough that a subwoofer becomes a choice rather than a requirement.
Reddit r/audiophile — u/the_jends on the Rinjani BE · read the original
Paulo Miguel Faustino, who owned the Buchardt S400 MKII before the Sasandu · read the full account
The size cuts both ways. A floorstander needs dedicated floor space, room to sit away from the wall behind it, and a cable run to each cabinet. In a small room a good pair of bookshelf speakers on stands will often sound better than a large tower crammed into a corner.
Choosing between them
Start with the room and the reason. If the television is the reason and floor space is scarce, buy a soundbar and stop there. If music is the reason, buy a stereo pair — bookshelf speakers on stands if the room is a typical HDB or condominium living room, floorstanders if the room is larger and you want full range without a subwoofer.
We have helped a lot of people through this decision, and the builds are written up in full — including the compromises and the parts we got wrong. Have a look at the customer testimonials and the rooms they ended up in.