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Has anyone tried double CLS

I had posed this question before because I had two pair of CLS11Z speakers in a Home theatre set up that I wanted to find a way to stack.I had just been feeling a loss of music after I sold my stacked pair of esl 57, and was curious about stacking the CLS. Would the bass improve as much as it did when the Quads were stacked?The similarity between the two speakers was that each speaker was bass shy and that attempts at sub-woofing never really were sucessful even after trying the Depth.So after seeing coverage of the RMAF and of the Kimber/Soundlab set up I decided that if they could double up the Soundlabs side by side,why couldn't the CLS be run that way?I was also bolstered by the fact that when my friend Tony went from three to four panels per side the sound from his Acoustats really improved.It is a shame that Martin Logan gave up on the CLS and went the hybrid route,because all they needed to do was increase the panel size.If Mr Saunders can get his hands on a couple of pair of CLS and wires them to a good amp in series he will hear that a lot of problems with the original CLS disappear.Maybe it will even change his priorities,so that great uncompromised sound and not floor space rules.
lacee

Showing 2 responses by la45

la45
242 posts
 

Hi,

Its interesting to talk about the CLS in a stacked configuration to get better bass. I do not believe this will work due to the design. From what I can remember the best configuration for the CLS I had heard was from the designer who produced the American Hybrid phono stage.

He used a tube amp in place of the CLS's own transformer/power supply. This approach borrowed from the old Acoustat designs, a direct drive amplifier configuration. The efficiency was better and CLS played with High SPL in the bass. I was in shock.
la45
242 posts
 
Greg,

You hit it right! That is what I heard. The volume went up 5 fold on the CLS 1. There was no added extension in the bass or in the highs, not possible with this design. The point here is the CLS and any speaker for that matter can be "tweaked" to load a room so there is the "appearance" of more bass or dynamics using tweaks like anchor stands or direct drive amplification or just using a "fast" sub.

By the way in my old set up I used a subwoofer comprised of 2x10" paper cones and 1 passive 12" cone driver. Clever mechanical roll offs, which helped with the integration in that 100hz area.

Fun times with that speaker, the most transparent midrange but not the sweetest, that honor goes to the Stax 81's.
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