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What good is Stacking?

Tapehead47

Tapehead47

Addicted Member
Just curious: I stacked my 4311's and am very satisfied with the resulting sound. But just exactly why do they sound so much better? Is it the amount of air the drivers are moving?

Will it have any negative effects on my Amp?

Rick
 
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Lower distortion for a given volume; to put it simply because the drivers don't work as hard there being more of them.
 
I don't understand stacking.

Lower distortion for a given volume; to put it simply because the drivers don't work as hard there being more of them.
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Isn't "more drivers" also called Kabuki?

Stacking two identical sets of speakers may be OK, but stacking two different brands or models yields a terrible audio mix. A single pair of good speakers will always sound better than a mix, in my humble opinion.
 
I assume it has largely to do with tweeter positioning. And yes, because there are more drivers moving more air, none of them have to work as hard to generate the same volume level.

Stacking 2 different ones can go both ways. Although not "stacked" I was up at a fellow AK'ers place with my mach twos, and we ran them and his HPM-100s in tandem. The result was quite possibly the sweetest sound I've ever heard. :music: Maybe they would've sounded different if stacked, who knows? :confused:
 
Just adding to what's already been said...

Two pairs of speakers wired in parallel will result in a lower impedance load allowing the amp to produce more power, assuming the amp can handle the lower impedance load.
 
I've found that inverting a single pair of speakers and putting them on two foot high stands helps the soundstage quite a bit; I believe this is because it gets the woofers up from behind the furniture and puts the tweeters closer to seated listening height. It may be that a lot of the effect of stacking speakers comes from the top pair being raised and inverted, rather than from an interaction between upper and lower speakers.

No guarantees, just idle speculation.
 
FreshMaker said:
Why is it better to stack speakers opposed to setting them next to each other or any other configuration?
Click to expand...

In some cases, it may not be. It's generally accepted that you want the tweeters as close together as possible, however. Let your ears decide.
 
"Isn't "more drivers" also called Kabuki?"

No. Perhaps it was a mistake to "put it simply".

Distortion is a direct product of excursion. When you stack two pair of speakers you double the number of drivers reproducing a given part of the frequency range (compared to a single pair), thus for a given volume excursion is cut in half thus lowering distortion.

That ain't Kabucki
 
MarkAnderson said:
In some cases, it may not be. It's generally accepted that you want the tweeters as close together as possible, however. Let your ears decide.
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If thats true I might have the worse speakers ever for stacking. haha

 
Many times with floorstanding speaker systems, the sound is perceived as 'better' since you've raised the listening field to be more closely positioned to the ear. But, that's not the only difference.

Sound absorbtion due to room layouts has been drastically changed, which actually results in the speakers sounding 'different'. You can easily tell a difference which may be interpreted as 'better'.

When recording/audio/mix/mastering engineers make adjustments to a mix, the position of monitors is absolutely critical. The monitors aren't sitting on the floor, pointing straight down from the ceiling, directed away from the listening area, or set up too wide/too narrow.

Stacking speakers sometimes also helps to widen the 'sweet spot' for the listener. But, unmatched stacked sets can also cause inaccurate/poor/false stereo field imaging, as well as hills and valleys in the proper EQ/crossover points.

Changes to lowering distortion aren't really that big of a concern since many mixes actually sound better to most people with a bit more distortion present. It revolves around basic psychoacoustic principles.

. . Falcon
 
I gotcha!

Thanks, guys....
I knew I knew, but I didn't know I knew. Less distortion due to shorter excursions of the woofers makes tons of sense. Also, the soundfield it 'taller', hence a larger 'sweetspot'.
I knew the impedence would be halved. From 8ohms to 4ohms. And my power would be doubled. That's a little confusing to my ignorant brain. It's like a truck towing another pickup uphill. By adding the extra truck, the towing truck doubles its power? Make it simple...

Good answers!

Rick
 

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Tapehead47 said:
Thanks, guys....
I knew I knew, but I didn't know I knew. Less distortion due to shorter excursions of the woofers makes tons of sense. Also, the soundfield it 'taller', hence a larger 'sweetspot'.
I knew the impedence would be halved. From 8ohms to 4ohms. And my power would be doubled. That's a little confusing to my ignorant brain. It's like a truck towing another pickup uphill. By adding the extra truck, the towing truck doubles its power? Make it simple...

Good answers!

Rick
Click to expand...

Putting them in parallel gives the current an extra route to go with the same resistance as the original way.
Try blowing out of a straw, then try blow out of two straws at the same time.
 
A couple of extra considerations:

  • Woofer output will couple with each other, yielding easier bass SPLs are lower power levels.
  • The upper woofer will decouple from the floor, reducing the tendency for boominess, tightening up the bass.
  • Tweeters, with a higher transducer diameter vs. frequency, tend to be directional (limiting distribution). The tweeters in the upper speakers will generally be closer to the listener's ears in height, improving reception of highs and upper mids. A similar effect to simply raising a single set.
  • Do not expect different models and different manufacturer's products to stack well. Crossover, transducer and cabinet phasing will not likely be anywhere near the same, so your most likely result will be muddy sound, and imaging distortions, as well as very lumpy frequency response. Best bet is to stack the same model. Anything else is a serious gambling game.
Some mix combinations may sound good to the individual ear, but when measured in the lab, will look nasty. As you know, some folks color their speaker output intentionally. Flat sometimes is not as pleasing. Your results may vary, and that is really all that counts.

Enjoy,
Rich P
 
Is it possible for my system to sound 4x better when adding just another pair? That's my perception. I can't wait for my friends and brothers to hear this!
Last time I had all 4 JBL 4311's hooked up together was about 15 or so years ago. At that time I hung them in the 4 corners to emulate a quad system. It sounded much better than 2 speakers at the time. But stacking them seems to be a big improvement. I'm also in a smaller room now (12' x 12') compared with the 12' X 15' listening room I had back then. Let me correct that, I recall it was about 1980 when I bought my first CD player! Man! Time freekin' flies?

Rick
 
Tapehead47 said:
Is it possible for my system to sound 4x better when adding just another pair? That's my perception. I can't wait for my friends and brothers to hear this!
Last time I had all 4 JBL 4311's hooked up together was about 15 or so years ago. At that time I hung them in the 4 corners to emulate a quad system. It sounded much better than 2 speakers at the time. But stacking them seems to be a big improvement. I'm also in a smaller room now (12' x 12') compared with the 12' X 15' listening room I had back then. Let me correct that, I recall it was about 1980 when I bought my first CD player! Man! Time freekin' flies?

Rick
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While not putting a number to how much better stacked speakers sound, I do think that my triple Advents sound a lot better than you might think.

I think Tom hit on the most important point vis-a-vis less distortion with more drivers although that's not all of it.

I think you must have meant 1990 in your last sentence huh Rick? CD players weren't generally available to the public yet in 1980, :D

Doug
 
CD player

I think you're probably right. Seems like it was 1980! But that would be 27 years ago. 1990 would be correct now that I think of it.

Damn I'm getting old!

Rick
 
Combine drivers ?

Have any of you stackers ever considered putting your matching multiple drivers into one cabinet ? Check out Bozak's approach :
 

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