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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

Showing 2 responses by plato

plato
1,543 posts
 
I guess if your ceiling was high enough for stacked MG-20's it could work if you built a custom frame to hold the panels. Although I don't know how much better that would work than a single pair... you'd have more power handling and greater dynamic capability, but you'd probably have to deal with damping more room reflections as well.

Have you ever tried any of the stacked Acoustat models like the 1+1, 2+2, Sixes, or Eights? They can be pretty impressive and detailed and they have a great midrange.
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.
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