Unstacking

Tapehead47

Tapehead47

Addicted Member
After I went all crazy about my stacked JBL4311's I've changed my mind. I'm keeping them stacked as they are (for now, anyway), but I'm beginning to realize they sound better 2 at a time.

I've done lots of things over the last 25 years with the 4 of them. I've had them in all 4 corners of the room. I've hung them near the ceiling in all 4 corners. I've had them stacked laying horizontally. I've spaced all 4 across one wall. They've been on stands. Had one pair hanging near the ceiling and the other pair on stands, all on one wall.

With my new Quasi-dedicated music room I've been trying different configurations. For nearly a year I kept a pair in storage. Finally I retrieved the others about 2 months ago and set them on top of the original setup. When I hooked all four up to the A and B terminals and played both sets I really enjoyed the "wall of sound" I achieved. Played 'em like that for awhile now and bragged about them on AK. Had lots of feedback both positive and negative.

My mind was closed. I was sure that what I was hearing was the best my system could sound! How could it not when you double-up the most important part of a system? I'm still not convinced that stacking isn't superior. I am just so damn stubborn!

Now, to disprove my theory I'm hooking my ADC eq back in to fiddle around a bit with the levels. It's something I like to do, anyway, so why not....

Question: is there a different way to hook 2 pair up rather than the A/B terminals? Maybe like parallel/series? Explain, please, my fellow Akers.

Thanks!
Rick in Lutz, Fl.
 
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parallel is running one speaker wire from the amp and connecting to one speaker then a jumper from that speaker to the 2nd, + to + and - to -. For impedance, 1/Ra + 1/Rb = 1/Rt where R is the resistance (impedance) of speaker a or b or the total, t

series is running one speaker wire from the amp to the speaker stack and putting + on one speaker + and - on the other speaker - with a single wire jumper between the unused speaker - to the other speaker's unused +. For impedance, Ra+ Rb= Rt.

As always wire left and right Identically.
 
Rick, the problem with your question is we don't know what your amp is doing when you select both A and B.

Now, most amps will put the speakers in parallel in this situation. Some amps (my Kenwood for example) will place the speakers in series when you select A and B. Conservative amp manufacturers do this to protect the amp (and speakers) from total failure should the user put two very low impedance speakers in parallel.

There is a simple way to tell what your amp is doing. With only one set of speakers hooked up, what happens when you select both A and B.

If selecting A and B, shuts off everything, then the switch is moving the speakers in series.

If the speakers continue to play, then the amp puts the speakers in parallel.

Regards,
Jerry
 
Tapehead47 said:
Question: is there a different way to hook 2 pair up rather than the A/B terminals? Maybe like parallel/series? Explain, please, my fellow Akers.

Thanks!
Rick in Lutz, Fl.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a different way. Hook all your speakers up to the "L" terminals only, or hook all of them up to the "R" terminals only. :D
 
Stacking JBL's

For a long time, I ran my 3 pair of JBL's stacked in this manner : Heavy-duty speaker stand about 24 inches tall, 2 L-100's on their side - tweeters outboard and then on top, 4311 sitting upright. Figured that had the dispersion angles covered.

Was running them with a Crown DC-300A series II. Hooked them up in parallel. The 300A II has banana jack binding posts, each pair of speakers was wired into a banana jack and the first was plugged into the amp, the second into the first, and the third into the second.

The Crown had no problem driving the resultant 2.66 ohm (nominal) load.

I must say, the results were quite impressive. When people would come over and want to hear them loud, I would play "Baba O'Riley" or "Won't get fooled again" by the Who.

"meet the new boss, same as the old boss" :thmbsp:

Sounded great on songs with fine detail as well. I also used to enjoy "Your latest trick" by Dire Straits.

Another favorite was "In the shape of a heart" by Jackson Browne.

It was "Audio Paradise" for me. Then I got married and moved and the new wife said "I don't want my living room looking like a recording studio !" :nono:

So I figured it would only be a year or so and we'd buy or build that new house with a bonus room that would be my "mancave". :yes:

So, I cut back to ONE pair of 4311's and some of the peripheral gear got boxed up. :tears:

A year turned into 12! 12 years. :sigh:

But the universe is about to right itself. New house will be finished soon, and the basement mancave will rock!

Expect to see 1 pair of 4311's,2 pair L-100's, 1 pair 4312's,1 pair 4310's (in grey), 1 pair L-200's, and 1 pair Pioneer CS-R700's.:thmbsp:

Driving this all will be 3 Crown DC300A II's and 3 Crown PS-400's. :banana:

Will try to scan and post a photo of the 3 pair JBL setup soon.
 
Salesguy: Congrats on the new house. Especially the Basement mancave recording studio retreat thing. All those JBL's running simultaneously will be most impressive! Looking forward to a photo or two...

Rick
 
I will, Tom. If you'll trade me a pair of yours (as in the Avatar) for my 4 4311's! Deal or no deal?

Rick
 
Rick

I'll trade you a pair of Altec 605s for four 4311s. I was thinking of ebaying the 605s.
 

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(Un)stacking JBL's

Tom Brennan said:
Instead of stacking low output JBLs why not use a pair of high output JBLs? L-300s say?
Click to expand...

Have to admit, 1st time I've ever heard 4310/11/12's referred to as "low output".:scratch2:
 
stacking

How interesting I was doing some of that this past weekend and was going to post something but I thought I get a weird reaction. I picked up a set of Nova 7 cabinets cheap and replaced the guts with the drivers from a set technics that had good cones but bad cabinets. I stacked these on top of my Sp 1500's The 1500's are on top of platforms with a slight back tip and toed in slightly the refurbished 7's are on top even across front of 1550's in middle with wedge to tip forward to level. I tried them with same tip back as 1550's but it sounded fuzzy. I guess delay betwwen the tweets was too much. So now it's 2 12"s 2 10"s 2 6"s 4 5" and 6 tweets on A/B loud and proud Yes alblum SWEET. as a side note I did see an article somewhere on the web about stacking converts the sound from spherical to cylindrical this also accounts for increase in volume too and sound pressure.
This is Fun
Oh Yeah mancaves rock!
 
System I use is:

Bottom pair only for relaxed accurate listening.

Both pairs when listening loud and dynamic.
 
Man, am I glad you asked this....didn't wanna get labeled an ignoramus..

Have a 9090db and two pair of Marantz Imperial 6. When I go A+B, the volume drops significantly, and more importantly, the treble seems to really fall off. I have checked polarity multiple times and everything is hunky dory. Thinking about calling it quits, as the setup is rather ugly.

?? Anyone??:sigh:
 
Alex: Do you find the treble and mids boosting and the bass attenuating when all 4 are playing? That seems to be my problem. Any ideas?

Rick
 
I've tried running two pairs of JBL l-96' off a pioneer spec-4 amp, the amp has plently of power to drive them but the best sound seems to come out when only one set of speakers is used on 1 amp, I've tried series and paralell and niether one sounds as good as it does with just one pair of speakers. The best sound came about when I used a seperate power amp (sa-8800) to drive one pair and the spec-4 to drive the others. Balance, stereo imaging, transparency are all worlds better than with one amp, and it sounds great until the volume gets really loud and the sa-8800 can't keep up with the spec-4.
 
Ok, call me an idiot again...

As of this moment I retract my "unstacking" post.

A few weeks ago I rearranged my system. When I reattached the speaker wires I had them out of phase. DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For some reason I was sure I had both pair in phase when I reconnected all the wires. Well, SMACK MY ASS AND CALL ME SALLY. You can guess what I did wrong.....

So, as of this moment I'm REINSTATING my "I'm Stacked" post. Whew!

Rick
 
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