Stacking speakers?

Steven Tate

CEO Flat Forehead Soc.
I have moved and my listening room is now quite a bit smaller than my old one. I use a pair of Klipsch Fortes for critical listening and JBL L-100's for my classic rock. In my old room, I had space to put them side by side. No such luck here without getting one pair too close to each other. So....what do you think about stacking the JBL's on top of the Klipsch? Any major pitfalls in that? If it's workable, how about laying the JBL's on their side? That would put their center line just about at listening level. I know it's not ideal, but just wondering if there is any reason this is just a terrible idea.
 
The room has a vaulted ceiling. 9 feet at the walls and probably 12-13 feet at apex. But only about 13 feet wide
My listening room is a bit smaller than that and I decided to put my 3 ways speakers side by side (HPM60 and ADSL810)....This is because my ceiling is not treated and I was already having issues with loss of bass. (and standing waves)
 
I have my DCM TF-600s on top of my Klipsch Quartets in my living room. I was cranking it yesterday and it sounds fine to me. It was like having James Taylor in the room playing just for me. I am playing these as a simultaneous stack with separate power to each pair of speakers, an SX-1250 and an SX-1280. If your plan was to play the speaker levels separately then I would experiment whit which will end on the top. I'm not sure what the size difference is between the JBLs and the Klipschs. How about throwing us some pics and give us an opinion on what you determined. I would, for one be interested in hearing how your plans come out.

I have been a stacker for years and rarely have I been disappointed. My bedroom system has DCM TF-400s on top of JBL L36 Decades. My work room has DCM CX-17s on top of DCM TimeWindows. The TWs are still in repair mode; so I can't report on its playing qualities, but the bedroom system is as near to perfect as I think I can get with what I have. Have fun.
 
It shouldn't cause any issues stacking them. As far as putting them on their sides, some bookshelf JBLs, including some models of the L100, are actually meant to be put on their sides. I currently have my JBL 4412s on their sides stacked on top of my JBL L100Ts and I love them in that arrangement.
 
How about throwing us some pics and give us an opinion on what you determined. I would, for one be interested in hearing how your plans come out.
Thanks everyone for the input. I’ve had just the JBL’s in the listening room since the move. The Klipsch’s have been stored in the garage with about two houses worth of other crap. The question came up because I set my mind last weekend that I was going to put everything up and throw away what I didn’t want (most of it) so I can get two cars in the garage. I’m 90% done and one of the few things left are those Klipsch speakers. I’m bringing them in tonight, so I’ll post a pic when I have them in. Sounds like I should be just fine stacking. Thank again! :beerchug:
Steve
 
Yup concur with everybody else .I have Yamaha 4115 pa speakers on the floor and axiom ax-5 reference monitors on top and zero issues.
 
I have my DCM TF-600s on top of my Klipsch Quartets in my living room. I was cranking it yesterday and it sounds fine to me. It was like having James Taylor in the room playing just for me. I am playing these as a simultaneous stack with separate power to each pair of speakers, an SX-1250 and an SX-1280. If your plan was to play the speaker levels separately then I would experiment whit which will end on the top. I'm not sure what the size difference is between the JBLs and the Klipschs. How about throwing us some pics and give us an opinion on what you determined. I would, for one be interested in hearing how your plans come out.

I have been a stacker for years and rarely have I been disappointed. My bedroom system has DCM TF-400s on top of JBL L36 Decades. My work room has DCM CX-17s on top of DCM TimeWindows. The TWs are still in repair mode; so I can't report on its playing qualities, but the bedroom system is as near to perfect as I think I can get with what I have. Have fun.

I love this King! I too like to mix and match and A/B, also have TF 600 and 400 and think that they add that "timeframe expanse" when added to even quality speakers. However being that they are so tall it never occurred to me to actually lift them off the floor. Brilliant! Aren't the 400's wider than the Decades?
 
I once thought it would be cool to have eight pair of Minimus 7 mounted sideways on a slanted-back vertical post as a sort of line array with tweeter-over-tweeter, mid-over-mid, mirror-imaged L and R, if you get my awkward description. Truth is, I still think it would be cool for somebody else to try.
 
You might get lucky and find that stacking makes the best position for each speaker. Probably not but you may be happy with it.
I stack them to the roof so I can play from speaker to speaker or all at the same time. It could sound better I'm sure but for my use it works well.
Your infraction will be small compared to my said to be unforgivable blunder.
You got my blessing.
 
Just to wrap it up, thought I would show a pic of the stacked JBL's and Klipsch's. Everything has just been set in place after the move to get it functional for testing. I'm currently building a four level shelf, two units wide, where I can put two turntables on top and several of my receivers/amps/components below, so I'm not dressing any wires on this setup. All I have working right now is a Marantz 1200 integrated with a Marantz linear tracker turntable. When finished with my shelves, I'll add a Dual 1229, a Marantz 2325 receiver, a Marantz CD player, a Marantz 5020 Cassette deck (notice a theme here? Lol.), and possibly a 2245 or 2275. I've ordered some black grille faces for the JBL's because the orange doesn't go with anything in the room. I considered getting some of the newly manufactured foam grilles off of the bay - they look fantastic - but $345 plus shipping just didn't make sense.

40955134-618A-43CF-863D-899F4BE2F884.JPEG
 
Not on top but in a 10'x11' room I have LX16's on stands with B&W 704's on the outside. They sound better together than apart.
 
I stack speakers all the time, I just rarely if ever listen to more than one pair at a time. I bought a pair of 24 inch tall cheap wood bar stools at Walmart to use as speaker stands. That gives you amazing location flexibility. Turn a chair cross ways and line up speakers off walls facing chair. This eliminates the parallel surface effect and really allows a speaker to do its thing. Hear some space and staging effects I do not hear other wise. Experimenting is the reason to have multiply sets of speakers. Has opened my ears to the abilities of smaller speakers. Yes, the wife gets over it.......................
 
When speakers are stacked the lower cabinet resonates, distorting the output. In this case it is like placing the speaker on the floor and having the floor, joists, and rest of the home structure absorb, damp, re-radiate sound. This is distortion.

If you must stack speakers, it is best to use small stands and rubber pads for isolation between the speakers to reduce the passing of vibration between the cabinets. Isolation prevents the unused cabinet from acting as a resonant chamber, absorbing some frequencies and re-emitting at others.

The cabinet will still pick up vibrations from the room, true, but the sides are stiff enough that not much likely gets into the chamber that way.

I've seen credible arguments that one ought to cover the faces of all unused speakers, a piece of lightweight masonite will work, to prevent cone movement by the powered speaker, as this sound absorption functions much like a room treatment, particularly near resonance.
 
When speakers are stacked the lower cabinet resonates, distorting the output. In this case it is like placing the speaker on the floor and having the floor, joists, and rest of the home structure absorb, damp, re-radiate sound. This is distortion.

If you must stack speakers, it is best to use small stands and rubber pads for isolation between the speakers to reduce the passing of vibration between the cabinets. Isolation prevents the unused cabinet from acting as a resonant chamber, absorbing some frequencies and re-emitting at others.

The cabinet will still pick up vibrations from the room, true, but the sides are stiff enough that not much likely gets into the chamber that way.

I've seen credible arguments that one ought to cover the faces of all unused speakers, a piece of lightweight masonite will work, to prevent cone movement by the powered speaker, as this sound absorption functions much like a room treatment, particularly near resonance.

The floor is hardwood over a concrete slab. No significant vibration there. During the remodel, I ended up with a few sample carpet squares. I put one, carpet side down, on each Klipsch - mostly to protect from scratching. But it should also give some sonic isolation. So far, both speakers sound good. I will need to experiment with exact placement and toe-in to get the best sound. I also have ordered a pair of 10” high oak speaker stands to experiment with them side by side. Time will tell what sounds best to me. Thanks for the input!
 
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