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Great Speakers - More is More?


Reflecting on my other thread desperately seeking great midrange, I recalled some of the holy grail audiophile speakers of my youth including the Quad ESL 57 and the KHL 9.

At that time, there was an interesting superlative which could be added to either of those names: STACKED!

Stacked Quads! Stacked KLH 9s! The Levinson HQD system featuring "stacked" Quads! Stacked Tympanis!

As I fine tune my listening room and enjoy the unusually articulate bass of my Tympani IVa's, I recall that it is often attributed to the unusually large surface area of the bass panels.

So why not "stacked" Magneplanars? Stacked MG-20's?

There was another thread discussing the surprising virtues of the cheapo Radio Shack speakers. In that thread, one of you suggesting "stacking" the monitors for a bargain priced "line source".

This seems like an obvious area for audiophile experimentation, yet no one seems to ever discuss it.

Please help me to buy more audio.
cwlondon
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Plato

I believe "stacked" did not necessarily mean vertically stacked.

After posting this thread, it occured to me that greater surface area for planars would probably help the bass. But perhaps it would not be good to have doubled up tweeters, at least in different locations?

Re room reflections, I believe they could be tamed.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
I have three MG1.6 in the front, so I guess that is half-stacked Maggies.

It would be practical to vertically stack MMGs. I thought about this in context of creating high and low left and right front speakers as required for the 2+2+2 multichannel configuration. For stereo or 5.1 multichannel you would simply drive the high and low speakers with the same signal.
wwwrecords
172 posts
 
I have never tried stacking speakers, though I have read stacking Advents was apparently enjoyed by many years ago.

I don't have a room that would accomodate large speakers being stacked, plus my budget couldn't finance it. Sounds like fun though.
plato
1,543 posts
 
CW, yes, I think the problem of having multiple tweeters at different points on the horizontal axis can be problematic and lead to time smear distortions and complicated reflective patterns. I think that's why vertical arrays are generally more successful and coherent. Plus in panel and ribbon speakers the drivers do not have much vertical dispersion...

You can get more relative bass with horizontal stacking, but sometimes too much bass and then the imaging usually becomes more vague, as well.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
many years ago, i visited an audio dealer at his home. he owned 8 pair of quad esls, placed at various locations in his listening room.

i remember listening to an lp of dave bruck "take 5". it was a most memorable experience.

i also listened to 8 pairs of sound labs, also a memorable experience.
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