Nothing completes a home entertainment system or a garage band setup better than a floor standing tower speaker. Actually, this type of speaker is considered the highest quality speaker available. So which are the best floor standing tower speakers in 2017? You’d want to get these speakers because their large size enables them to deliver more power and clearer sound than a bookshelf or monitor speaker.
Contents
- Buying Guide for Tower Floor Speakers
- Top 10 Tower Floor Standing Speakers
- #1. Klipsch RP280FA Tower Speaker w/ Dolby Atmos Height Channel (Black Pair):
- #2. Sony SSCS3 3-Way Floor-Standing Speaker (Single):
- #3. JBL Arena 170 White 2-Way 7-Inch Floor Standing Loudspeaker (White):
- #4. Klipsch R-24F Dual 4.5-inch Floorstanding Two Speaker Bundle:
- #5. KEF Q500 Floorstanding Loudspeaker – White (Single):
- #6. Polk Audio T50 Home Theater and Music Floor Standing Tower Speaker (Single, Black):
- #7. Fluance XL7F High Performance Three-way Floorstanding Loudspeakers:
- #8. Polk Audio TSi500 High Performance Tower Speakers with Four 6-1/2″ Drivers – Pair (Black):
- #9. Samsung TW-J5500 2.2 Channel 350 Watt Wired Audio Sound Tower (2015 Model):
- #10. Art+Sound AR1004 Bluetooth Tower Speaker:
Buying Guide for Tower Floor Speakers
Tower speakers are typically used in a surround sound setup as front and rear surround speakers. They’re perfect for small gathering concerts in bingo halls and high school stadiums. They’re also available in a variety of looks and designs that complement the decor of the studio or amphitheater they’re in. To wit:
• The Difference between Floor-Standing and Satellite or Bookshelf Speakers: Floor-standing speakers differ from other speaker models because they’re much larger. A satellite speaker or bookshelf speaker can only use a tweeter and midrange driver because of their smallness. Meanwhile, floor standing speakers can use one or more woofers on top of tweeters and midranges. Subwoofers are also included with some floor-standing speakers known as tower speakers.
Smaller speakers just cannot deliver as accurate and as powerful a sound as their floor-standing counterparts. There are also some audio experts that take note of how floors-standing speakers add color or “personality” to the sound that smaller audio speakers cannot do. Non-floored speakers can only reproduce the original audio neutrally and without any added characteristics. The smaller and cheaper the speaker, the more warbled and personality-bereft the sound is.
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• Shopping for Speakers by Matching Them to the System: Aside from making sure the room has enough space for the tower speakers you’re buying, you should also ensure to match your new speakers with your amplifier and receiver. That’s your best bet in getting the best standing tower speaker possible, aside from brand comparisons. High-powered systems might need a separate amplifier but some receivers already include built-in amplifiers from the start.
All the same, you should take into consideration impedance rating and power handling to ensure that the speakers, amplifier, and receiver are all rated similarly to deal with the same load. When using these best floor standing speakers in a surround-sound type of system, you should keep in mind of the other components. Speakers can differ significantly in the kind of sounds they make as well as their tonal characteristics.
• Choose Speakers in Accordance to Speaker Design: Aside from getting floor standing speakers that match the rest of your system in performance terms, you should also match the rest of your system and room in terms of design. This is more of a tower floor standing speakers category determined by personal preference than actual hard stats and specifications, to be honest. Thankfully, you have loads of cabinet designs to choose from regardless of the interior design of your home or studio.
Your best bet is to find a speaker that complements, contrasts, or is somehow related to the decor of your room when shopping for the best floor standing tower speakers in the usa. If you have a mostly warm and wooden room with cream walls and chocolate accents, then go for a modernist hi-tech speaker that serves as a perfect contrast to the classically made room or find an oak speaker that blends well with the interior design as a centerpiece. Don’t mismatch it with a bright red speaker that doesn’t contrast or complement the room.
• Take a Gander at the Terminals and Connection: Look at the type of terminals that the speakers you’ve chosen use. This consideration can be as important as taking into account performance and design. Spring-clip terminals are the most convenient because they can accept bare wires from your floor standing tower speakers us. Meanwhile, binding posts beat them out in terms of connection quality (theirs is better).
Binding posts also open you up to more options, such as choosing between pin connectors, double banana connectors, (single) banana connectors, and spade connectors. You have the option to buy gold-plated binding posts for the highest quality connection possible (since they prevent oxidation), but they’re prohibitively expensive. Or you can simply go the wireless route since tech advancements has allowed this to be an option.
Top 10 Tower Floor Standing Speakers
#1. Klipsch RP280FA Tower Speaker w/ Dolby Atmos Height Channel (Black Pair):
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Indeed, Klipsch RP280FA tower floor standing speakers are among the best when it comes to giving you a 360° Dolby Atmos® listening experience. It’s like the audio equivalent of a 3D video or virtual reality movie. It’s a speaker that’s capable of surrounding you by the sounds it makes, thus making you feel like you’re really there in the studio or at the concert.
Conclusion: The highly rated Klipsch RP280FA is an excellent tower speaker because of its all-black complementary design and its performance as a speaker with Dolby Atmos Height Channel features. It’s a definite 9.9 out of 10 for me.
- 360° Dolby Atmos® listening experience.
- Like a 3D video or virtual reality movie.
- Making you feel like you’re really there in the studio or at the concert.
- It’s rather expensive.
#2. Sony SSCS3 3-Way Floor-Standing Speaker (Single):
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The ¾-inch Sony Super Tweeter has 50 kHZ Sound Reproduction for assured high-resolution audio.
It’s the complete studio package even if you don’t have a setup. This 3-way 4-speaker bass-reflex system plus 1-inch polyester main tweeter and a foamed-mica cellular reinforced woofer.
Conclusion: Was there any doubt that Sony would find a way onto this list of the top 10 tower speakers? Even if they’re cheap and small speakers, I was specifically expecting it to end up here myself. These sony floor standing tower speakers score a solid 9.8 over 10 among many a customer out there (including myself).
- ¾-inch Sony Super Tweeter.
- 50 kHZ Sound Reproduction.
- Complete studio package.
- 3-way 4-speaker bass-reflex system.
- They’re smaller than other tower speakers.
#3. JBL Arena 170 White 2-Way 7-Inch Floor Standing Loudspeaker (White):
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JBL Arena 170 is an affordable tower loudspeaker that it also has the ability to sound off all your MP3, TV show, streaming video, and movie music with orchestral excellence and modern computer-optimized tech.
In my opinion, they’re a steal at their price with their high-definition imaging (HDI) waveguide technology. One could argue that the JBL Arena 170 doesn’t belong on this list. It’s an unknown compared to the likes of Sony or Bose.
Conclusion: Its cheap price tag should even elicit more suspicion from those who are used to buying expensive speakers. Are JBL floor standing tower speakers just cheap speakers altogether? No, I say. It earns its score of 9.3 out of 10.
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- Affordable.
- High-definition imaging (HDI) waveguide technology.
- Orchestral excellence and modern computer-optimized tech.
- Small.
- Suspiciously cheap.
- You get what you pay for.
#4. Klipsch R-24F Dual 4.5-inch Floorstanding Two Speaker Bundle:
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The quality of the Klipsch R-24F floor standing speakers line can challenge even the likes of Sony and Bose. Pound-for-pound they’re a good investment that gives your sound oomph and personality without too much muddiness.
It includes accessories like brass speaker banana plugs and dual copper woofers.
Conclusion: Surprise, surprise. Another Klipsch floor-standing speaker bundle has ended up on this list, and this time around it’s more of a complete package than the Klipsch RP280FA Tower Speaker. I give them a 9.5 out of 10 in light of this.
- High quality.
- Sound oomph and personality without too much muddiness.
- Includes brass speaker banana plugs and dual copper woofers.
- They’re smaller than the other speakers on this list and their half a grand value reflects that.
#5. KEF Q500 Floorstanding Loudspeaker – White (Single):
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The plinths of KEF Q500 tower floor standing speakers also serve to lock them into place so they wont’ fall over. And it has distortion-free power handling that ensures you of the clearest possible sound because of the increased sensitivity of its larger dome tweeter.
It also has the 5.25-inch bass drivers that quickly get to the booming beats found in all modern music.
Conclusion: The Q500 has a lot going for it, starting with its aluminum dome tweeter and going all the way to its aluminum steel plinth spikes with locking knobs to easily adjust its height. It’s definitely a solid 9.2 out of 10.
- Serve to lock them into place.
- Has distortion-free power handling.
- Has the 5.25-inch bass drivers.
- Many speakers have more compelling features than the KEF Q500.
#6. Polk Audio T50 Home Theater and Music Floor Standing Tower Speaker (Single, Black):
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These Polk T50 floor standing tower speakers comes complete with mass-loaded composite sub bass radiators. It also has 1-inch silk dome tweeter to give you crystal-clear treble. And it even has high-efficiency design made specifically for most home theater AV receivers.
Conclusion: Polk might not be as well-known as Sony or as feature-rich as Klipsch with its small but floor-standing tower speakers, but for its price and size, it’s at least comparable to the Sony offering. That’s why it gets 9.1 out of 10 as a rating.
- Has mass-loaded composite sub bass radiators.
- Has 1-inch silk dome tweeter.
- High-efficiency design for home theater AV receivers.
- It’s not in league with Sony even though it’s better than most cheap speakers of its price range.
#7. Fluance XL7F High Performance Three-way Floorstanding Loudspeakers:
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The Fluance XL7F loudspeaker has 1-inch pure silk dome tweeters that give you vibrant high-frequency response.
It offers bi-amp/bi-wire 5-way gold-plated binding post for a clear connection. And it’s a wood cabinet speaker with dual 6.5-inch polymer-treated midrange drivers to get that rich clear sound.
Fluance has impressive price, appearance, and quality integrity. What more can you ask for?
Conclusion: Even amateur speaker buyers who are only getting a tower speaker to adorn their home entertainment center respect what fluance tower floor standing speakers bring to the table. It’s unquestionably a 9.2 out of 10 loudspeaker.
- High-frequency response.
- 1-inch pure silk dome tweeters.
- Clear connection.
- Clear sound.
- Its design is kind of tacky for some.
- Some consumers view it as mediocre.
#8. Polk Audio TSi500 High Performance Tower Speakers with Four 6-1/2″ Drivers – Pair (Black):
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The Polk Audio TSi500 speaker has many of the same or improved features of the other Polk tower floor standing speaker product on this list.
This tower’s main claims to fame are its Dynamic Balance process and deep musical bass response. And it also has Polk propriety silk dome tweeters that offer more detailed highs without fatigue compared to metal domes and horns.
Conclusion: This is the bigger version of the Polk Audio T50 Home Theater and Music Floor Standing Tower Speaker that’s worth about mid-range costly. It’s more comparable to the pro-grade Klipsch RP280FA tower speaker. It’s easily a 9.5 out of 10.
- Many improved features.
- Dynamic Balance process.
- Deep musical bass response.
- Polk propriety silk dome tweeters.
- The price increase is too much for some.
- The RP280FA blows it out of the water in terms of performance.
#9. Samsung TW-J5500 2.2 Channel 350 Watt Wired Audio Sound Tower (2015 Model):
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The Samsung TW-J5500 also has most of its components built-in (in the age of the smartphone where everything is built in) like its 6-inch subwoofer and USB/optical/Anynet+/TV Sound Connect connections.
It doesn’t compare to Sony quality but it has enough bells and whistles to at least keep it on this list. This is one of the more modern commercial tower speakers on this list next to the offerings of Sony.
Conclusion: I call it modern because it fills the void of a 5.1 channel home theater system with a Bluetooth floor standing tower speaker setup. It’s easily a 9.4 out of 10.
- It also has most of its components built-in (in the age of the smartphone where everything is built in) like its 6-inch subwoofer and USB/optical/Anynet+/TV Sound Connect connections.
- It doesn’t compare to Sony quality but it has enough bells and whistles to at least keep it on this list.
- Why buy Samsung when you can buy a Sony?
#10. Art+Sound AR1004 Bluetooth Tower Speaker:
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The Art+Sound AR1004 Bluetooth tower speaker is probably the cheapest option on this list at less than a hundred bucks. So you can get what you pay for in terms of sound quality and the easy-to-connect Bluetooth.
Its appearance and design is pretty decent too.
Conclusion: The wireless information age is upon us, so naturally Bluetooth Tower Speakers are a thing. Does the Art+Sound speaker outdo the Samsung TW-J5500 when it comes to being a Bluetooth floorstanding tower speaker? No, not really except maybe price. It’s worthwhile enough to earn a 9 out of 10.
- Good sound quality.
- Easy-to-connect Bluetooth.
- Very affordable.
- Good design.
- The quality is all over the place.
- It has flaws like quality control issues and flimsy construction.
Conclusion: In conclusion, there’s no beating the Klipsch RP280FA Tower Speaker in terms of price, sound quality, and even the design of the tower speakers themselves. It’s close to perfect (if not perfect altogether) and a worthwhile (if expensive) investment for your sound system if you can afford it. It’s one of the best floor standing tower speakers in the world (if not the best) and only a multinational electronics conglomerate like Sony can come up with something halfway close to what the speaker specialist Klipsch and its RP280FA brings to the speaker table.
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