Speaker polyamory -- or, stories about getting a second set to alternate with your primary


So many threads out there are about chasing the ultimate speaker -- or getting rid of speakers to try something new.

Here, I am looking for different stories. 

If this applies to you, tell me about a time you had a certain kind of speaker and decided to get a second set to swap in. Maybe you had stand mounts and you wanted to swap in towers....maybe you had box speakers and wanted electrostats...maybe it was because you were super curious about a different brand...

Curious about your second, swap in speaker set...and why.

And, if you eventually fell out of love with the first pair and divorced them...feel free to confess to that, too.

Stay cool!

128x128hilde45

I used to only have one system and was buying and selling and swapping gear. After a while, I had enough to make almost a second system. While my primary system has always been conventional 2- or 3- or 4-way, my second system became both a mix of high sensitivity full range speakers and electrostatics. I believe there is a way to fall in love with all three of those types of speakers for both their strengths and weaknesses. It's similar to cars - would I prefer a Porsche GT or Bentley Continental? Both incredible machines that deliver very different driving experiences.

The primary system at the time was largely a full Modwright stack hooked up to Legacy Focus SE. The second system became a low-watt experience in a 10x20 room with a PS Audio BHK Pre, alternating a Bottlehead Kaiju, Modwright Ambrose A10 (only one ever made) and Atma-Sphere S30 with Oris 200 Horns and Quad 2805 electrostats. It was very difficult to consolidate back down to a single system.

Never done that and won't be doing it now I have found audio nirvana.

However, I would be interested if you could articulate the advantages / disadvantages that such a strategy provides, please.

Kind regards,

BP

I run ESL57s with Orelle Orators (very nice smallish 2 ways) in front of them and switch between the two depending on mood/ music 

Could not afford new equipment, so began to explore vintage.

I have five pair and a lengthy list of others I’d like to own and spend time with; IMF RSPM MkIV and IMF SACM are my grails.

Walsh Ohm 2s and 4s, Infinity, Dahlquist, Magnepan, backed by a pair of RELs.

Every so often I move the current pair out and set up another.

It fascinates me the way speakers present a soundstage, and all of the imaginative attempts through the years to get it right.

I learned to dislike two-way speakers because of mid-range suck out: those I would sell, they never satisfy, but the others are like musical instruments to me - they become part of you after you spend time with them, like a guitar - and I’ve learned a lesson by the dozens of comments I’ve read that all say the same thing: I had a pair of those, I wish I never sold them.

So I have ‘too many’ speakers, but that’s OK.

Great responses so far. @bobpyle mentions that he's hit audio nirvana and doesn't see why he'd have a second pair. Posters have mentioned a bit about why they like the variation which comes with a second speaker -- seems like tonality, dynamics, and soundstage can vary enough that there is a refreshing difference which can be introduced by a second set of speakers.

I'm pretty sure that there is a second set of speakers out there that would do greater justice to the symphonic music I listen to -- so that's another reason for swapping in a second pair -- to make another genre of music come to a fuller potential.