Wondering if you could stack wireless speakers, such as the KEF LS50 Wireless into an array? You could start off with two or three and add as needed. I think a vertical array of six or eight would sound pretty awesome (each channel, of course). My concern is any latency issues between the separate speakers. Would the wireless signal arrive and each speaker react at exactly the same time? What do you think?
What you'd end up with is a bunch of comb-filtering and wonky frequency response with huge peaks and valleys. Not because of any wireless signal issues, because of the proximity of the baffles and tweeters. This would be true for nearly any speaker setup that wasn't designed as a line array.
The LS50 baffles were designed to minimize baffle reflections and stacking them would only serve to nullify that advantage.
That said, stacked speakers can make for an interesting sound, but not one that's accurate or low in distortion.
Back when Pioneer brought an Andrew Jones designed bookshelf speaker to market for around $130, there was some interesting discussion on some DIY sites about building vertical arrays of them configured horizontally. Not sure if anyone ever did it.
The LS50 being considerably more expensive, idk if it makes monetary sense but I do think it is interesting.
To your specific question about signal delay, are the LS50s connected to each other in any way? I assume that signal delay either isn't an issue or has been worked out by linking them somehow to a single reciever. I guess in either case it shouldn't impact a line array of them.
I really don’t know the techniques KEF uses to make this work. I assume they use a transmitter, connected to your source, that sends the left-and-right signals to the respective speakers. I don’t believe the speakers are connected in any way.
I’m not planning to build the array anytime soon (if ever), I just thought I’d throw it out there as a "thought experiment". BTW, KEF is offering wireless speakers costing much less than the LS50. If the dreaded "comb filtering" isn’t a show stopper, one could build a modest array and add to it until it satisfies your particular circumstance.
P.S. Is comb filtering an issue with sound bars? there are a ga-zillion of them out there. You'd think we would have heard about this by now.
A sound bar isn't a simple array. Generally they are either two clusters that are providing vanilla two channel stereo, or they are presenting the multi-channel mix, just all from in front of you. Some higher priced units angle the dispersion of the surround channels to bounce them off the walls first, perhaps enhancing the surround illusion.
What they are not doing is all playing the same mono or summed signal, which would indeed create a comb filter.
Please stack a pile of LS50 wireless speakers...take a chance...I just want to see it...do it...also, what if an apartment neighbor has a pair of these things and his speakers pick up your front end and vise versa? Well? What?
One technical concern is that KEF embeds an "identity" code in the transmitted signal that keeps a stereo pair "private". Like using two identical subwoofers with remote volume adjust, there has to be a way to adjust volume one-at-a-time. Some remotes have an A/B switch to keep them separate. Like I said previously, I don't know what operating system KEF is using. As to your stacking request, I'll gladly accept any contributions to make this happen! I suggest you send a pair of LS50s to "get the ball rolling"!
I think Tekton has dispelled the Comb Filtering myth...
What Tekton does in effect, is combine the output of the outer tweeters to function as one large mid-range transducer. The outer tweeters do not play the upper freqs, only the center one does. Because mid-range freqs are a longer wavelength, they’re less susceptible to comb-filtering effects when placed close together. If all the tweeters played the upper freqs, then the DIs and others using that array would indeed suffer comb-filtering effects. The main issue with stacking LS50s is the proximity of the tweeters.
The LS50s are capable of such wide dispersion that I can’t imagine you’d hear any subjective benefit from stacking a pair other than loudness.
Yes, loudness. That's what you pay the "big, big" money for (thanks Alex). Loudness and scale. Also, I never said I'd put them one-on-the-other. They could be separated by 12 inches or whatever. So in a room with eight foot ceilings, you could have a seven speaker array. Bet you'd get good sound out of this. Attention KEF: Please have this setup at AXPONA, O.K.? You'd sell a lot of speakers if this works! Remember: You start with a mini-array and add-on as you can afford. You could also sell the rack to attach them to.
KEF has a new wireless speaker, the LSX, that retails for $1099/pr. Street price probably lower. Saves $1400 from your test. Also, these are powered speakers, have a DAC, and support streaming services. Not to mention the space savings and aesthetic considerations. I think this is a good idea all-around as long as everything works in sync.
After homework, looks like the "wireless" speakers must connect to each other via cat-6. Also, LS50 wireless are $4400/pr. Kinda takes the fun out of my thought experiment.
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