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Speaker stacking: what's the deal?

When I go to a concert, any concert, the sound is projected from only one end of the hall/room/arena. There are no musicians playing to my right, left or behind me.
 
SaSi said:
Years ago, a local hifi magazine had stacked Quad ESL in their listening room. That made sense as these would not deliver high enough SPL as a single pair.
Stacking loudspeakers, especially when driving them from separate amplifiers or a single high powered one, helps reduce compression caused by the drivers and crossover. Both the drivers, especially the woofers, can reach non-linear operation mode rather fast and crossover components, especially inductors, can saturate.
Then there's the benefit (?) of having more sources in a line. Although a line array is a totally different thing and doesn't come close to stacking two loudspeakers, even identical ones, having a tall stacked set makes the source create a more cylinder like sound wave that has an increased sound level compared to a point source radiating a spherical sound wave. Of course you need plenty of identical drivers lined up vertically to achieve this but even stacking two loudspeakers gets you one step towards that direction. Stacking three makes a second step.

But there are caveats as well. Firstly, if you stack two totally different loudspeakers you get two different timbres mixing up and the end result may be subjectively nicer or even worse (muddy?) to the listener. And then there's lobbing which is a complex contour of canelation and peaks caused by two or more separate drivers radiating the same frequencies at a distance from each other.

However, depending on the room layout, reflections, listener taste and several other factors, it can be worth experimenting. If you have a few sets of speakers that can be safely stacked on on top of the other, why not try. For best results, it's a good thing to employ multiple amplifiers, one per set of loudspeakers. At least to ensure you achieve the benefit of reduced compression and increased headroom.
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Had a friend who had stacked Quads... forgot the associated equipment... given there was a very distinct sweet spot, if one was in that spot the sound was like no other, might say it was perfect. When the Advent phenomenon became popular we used to experiment with different makes and models and very few combinations 'worked', and by that I mean was not objectionable. The Advents though totally worked stacked, for whatever reason everything about the sound improved, there was total agreed.
 
Mystic said:
Back yard @ summer!

Say, you've been around these boards for a spell: Do you recall the AK member who used to set up a ton of stage monitors -- JBL, Altec or other I no longer recall the make, might even have been a mix -- in his yard for summer super-blowouts? I know Jaymanna did something similar @ his annual Twangfests, but this old cat went bigger -- WAY bigger -- in his arrangement. Hi effin' back yard looked like the stage @ an outdoor rock festival circa 1977.

Anyway, I'm curious to know because I recall his having posted pix which may or may not still be "viewable", and that's if the thread @ which he posted the photos survived the transfer of AK data from the old forum platform to this XenForo platform.
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Wasn't that powerman ?
 
Threads like this crack me up. Imagine attending a concert where the roadies stacked up mismatched speakers any ol' kinda' way and then let it rip. There are many reasons they don't do that ...
 
damacman said:
Threads like this crack me up. Imagine attending a concert where the roadies stacked up mismatched speakers any ol' kinda' way and then let it rip. There are many reasons they don't do that ...
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Well... as I've said and then restated many times, I started the thread because I was interested in switching between two sets of speakers but interested in playing them together. As it happens once I had the two pairs hooked up (stacked on one another) I actually did experiment with running them together but as I expected it didn't sound great and in fact I didn't even mention that I ran the two pairs together until now, because it didn't seem at all important to the conversation. As far as I can see most of the folks who are talking about staking speakers to play together have used either matching pairs or similar ones of the same make.

I think that it's pretty obvious to most that just picking two random pairs of speakers stacking them on top of one another and playing them together isn't going to do anything special sonically...
 
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axchisler said:
View attachment 2265012
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Wow! Not picture in a picture, picture on a picture.:D

Those old CRT consoles can be useful in today's world. How about removing the tube and associated electronics. Turn the space into a rack by adding a shelf or two. Make the area below the CRT a drawer to hold audio "tchotchkes".

Two words of advice: Speaker stands
 
JoeESP9 said:
Wow! Not picture in a picture, picture on a picture.:D

Those old CRT consoles can be useful in today's world. How about removing the tube and associated electronics. Turn the space into a rack by adding a shelf or two. Make the area below the CRT a drawer to hold audio "tchotchkes".

Two words of advice: Speaker stands
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:jump:
 
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This might be the best sounding "stack" I've ever put together.


80-AF8301-38-D7-4963-BAC7-A2-A6-D7-AFC56-E.jpg
 
Honestly, it seems like the OP had the same issue I've always had. Too many speakers, no real place to run them. My solution has mostly been to run my bigger speakers as speaker A on short stands and rotate my smaller speakers in and out as speaker B. The smaller speakers are not at an ideal height (too high) but it allows me to get two pair in the room at once. A lot of times I'm not sitting in my best listening spot anyway, but it's an open great room. I don't run both pairs at once. They just both occupy the same footprint.

The smaller ones are usually something about the size of something like my ADS L470's, Pinnacle PN 6's, etc. If I really want to position them properly I'll temporarily stand mount them at the right height to carefully listen to them.

None of this is really ideal but at least it allows me to hook up another set of speakers to one of my best amps (Yamaha A700) rather than be in a closet. And interchanging the smaller ones is easy for maximum variety.
 
Kyocerafan said:
Honestly, it seems like the OP had the same issue I've always had. Too many speakers, no real place to run them. My solution has mostly been to run my bigger speakers as speaker A on short stands and rotate my smaller speakers in and out as speaker B. The smaller speakers are not at an ideal height (too high) but it allows me to get two pair in the room at once. A lot of times I'm not sitting in my best listening spot anyway, but it's an open great room. I don't run both pairs at once. They just both occupy the same footprint.

The smaller ones are usually something about the size of something like my ADS L470's, Pinnacle PN 6's, etc. If I really want to position them properly I'll temporarily stand mount them at the right height to carefully listen to them.

None of this is really ideal but at least it allows me to hook up another set of speakers to one of my best amps (Yamaha A700) rather than be in a closet. And interchanging the smaller ones is easy for maximum variety.
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Yup that's my deal. I have an amp that will easily accommodate multiple speakers, and I have multiple speakers. A selector box allows me to use all, or just one pair. So, why not?
 
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