### Choosing between Bookshelf speakers and tower speakers
Our audio experts often get questions about the differences and benefits between book speakers and tower speakers. Choosing between book speakers and tower speakers (also known as desk and floor speakers) can be a bit confusing, as each type offers distinct advantages depending on the situation.
It's not that one is better than the other, it just depends on your room, your budget, and your audio preferences. Choosing between book speakers and tower speakers becomes much easier when you can match the speaker to your scenario.
With that in mind, here are the three main factors you need to consider when choosing between book speakers and tower speakers.
#### The room
The space you have in your room is an obvious factor when choosing between book speakers and tower speakers. But it's not just about where the speakers are placed and whether there's enough space, it's also about the dimensions of the room and how the frequencies and outputs fill the space.
If you have a small room, book or desk speakers will suffice, especially if most of your listening happens close to the speakers. If you have a larger room, especially one with ample seating, tower speakers are a better choice because of their ability to produce extra output/volume and fuller bass without the need for a subwoofer.
If you don't have floor space for tower speakers, but you do have a shelf or piece of furniture available, your choice is clear. However, there are a few things to consider:
- Bookshelf speakers can be mounted on stands if no furniture is available or if it fits the desired setup.
The verticality of tower speakers and the fact that they don't need a stand may make them more space-efficient than book speakers with stands.
- If you already own or plan to integrate a bass-boosting subwoofer with your desk (or tower) speakers, you'll need to account for additional shelf or floor space and the ideal mounting location.
#### Budget
A big factor to consider when choosing between book speakers and tower speakers is of course how much money you have to spend.
Speakers can range in cost from $50 to over $100,000. This very wide range has to do with the different structural and mechanical elements that make up the speaker system and the wide range in quality of materials that can be used for each of these elements.
High-performance floorstanding speakers typically start at around $500 a piece, so if you're on a very tight budget, desk speakers are probably a better option, starting at around $150 for small book speakers (also known as satellite speakers) and $250 for full-range book speakers.
#### The sound
Last but not least is the quality and type of sound you are looking for.
In general, a great-sounding speaker should always embody a few key attributes to deliver a truly immersive and compelling experience. These include accuracy, detail, and the ability to stay true to the content – to delicately render fine details and create a dramatic but compelling sonic impact when needed. Any great book or tower speaker should also have room-activating output capabilities and an excellent dynamic range from sparkling high notes to powerful, well-defined bass.
On a more spiritual level, a great headphone should faithfully convey the emotional and sensory experience that the director, musician, or sound engineer intended for us to feel and never get in the way. You should find yourself so immersed in the content that you forget you’re listening to headphones—that’s truly the mark of a great headphone.
When it comes to the sound differences between desktop and tower speakers, there are two main factors to consider:
**Volume**: Speaker volume (also known as output and loudness) is a function of the speaker's sensitivity, or how effectively it converts power (watts) from the amplifier into volume (dB). The more sensitive a speaker is, the less power it will need from the amplifier to drive it loud. Tower speakers are typically more sensitive and therefore capable of producing more volume than office speakers, so if you want to be loud and annoy the neighbors, tower speakers are probably a better choice.
**Bass and overall sound quality**: For audiophiles and headphone addicts, this is probably the most hotly debated and controversial part of your choice between tower speakers and desktop speakers.
There are many who swear by the superior sound quality of book speakers backed by subwoofers to handle the bass, while many will also tell you that tower speakers are the way to go for fuller sound without the need for subwoofers. Ultimately, it comes down to what you’re looking for in terms of sound and what your personal preferences are.
One of the most important elements of a speaker’s sound quality is its ability to handle bass, which is one of the hardest things to get right in a speaker. The larger size of tower speakers allows them to move more air through the drivers than desk or book speakers, which generally allows them to produce deeper, more impactful bass than standalone book speakers. Towers typically have more drivers as well, which creates more bass. So if deep, powerful bass is important to you and you don’t want to add a subwoofer, towers are probably the better option.
Keep in mind that there are many full-range book speakers that don’t require a subwoofer, so it’s not a necessity. But if you want the extra low-end punch that only a great subwoofer can provide, it’s a great idea and you can read our post on how to properly combine subwoofers and speakers for the best possible performance.