Multiple Systems in one room

I really enjoy browsing through pictures online of other people's audio setups and one thing that I keep seeing over and over is multiple systems in a single room. These do not appear to be images from a dealer or showroom because the rooms are cluttered with personal items and memorabilia. Quite often I'll see multiple types of power amps (one tube and one SS) and two pairs of speakers.

I'm not sure how people are doing this? Certainly the mere presence of the additional pair of speakers affects the sound from the others.

Does anyone on here do this?

 

I think some people just like have lots and lots of gear.

 

Yes people do have lots of gear and I am one of them. Many times you will see a multi ch and stereo set up together using the HT by-pass on a nice stereo amp or pre-amp. I have a system with two sets of speakers but they are not connected at the same time. I just like to hear some variety from time to time.

 

It's likely the presence of other speakers in the room does effect the sound but so does everything else in the room including you. It's a balance to whatever sounds right to your ears.

 

My video surround system is completely separate from my music system. To save space and avoid conflicts with the music system speakers, the front channel speakers for the surround system are wall mounted.

 

No mistaking this for a dealer showroom.

 

Something conspicuous by its absence in those pictures are speakers. I think that's probably for the best.

 

Looks perfectly normal to me

 

I do it all of the time I have two pairs of front speakers that I use for stereo and HT, powered by an Emotiva XPA-2. I just put in an A/B switch so that I can switch back and forth between the Polk LSiM 707's and the Omen Definitions.

I have efficient Klipsch speakers that I use in the rear, powered by a 50-watt SS amp, which has two different inputs. with one input for HT rears, directly from the processor and I use the other input listening to 2-channel stereo. The second input comes off of the Peachtree iNova preamp and I reverse the leads, so that the front left speaker, goes to the right rear speaker and vise versa.

I have a third system with two Altec Lansing A7's placed at a 90-degree angle to the right of the HT/stereo set up. I brought in a second couch on the left side of the HT / Stereo. This couch faces north into the A7's. It is powered by a tube pre-amp feeding two Rogue M-150 monoblocks.

All together, its three separate systems, I can run any set by themselves or all three at the same time. Right now, I happen to be listening to all three playing at the same time. Depending on what material I may be listening to, I can vary the individual volume controls to suit me preferences.

When sitting on the second couch, the "front" speakers are to my left, the A7's are directly ahead of me and the "rear" speakers are to my right.

The one thing that I do not do is to process two channel music. I have three separate amps running 3-stereo pairs of speakers.

What this does is to create a room filling sound. You can close your eyes and you would think you were in a much larger venue.

Yes, having more than one pair of speakers, does have an effect on the sound but not necessarily in a bad way.

It is also OK to have different kinds of speakers playing together. The trick here is to get the right combination that sounds good.

I'm very happy with my system as it currently exists and would not change any part of it (that's today at least).

 

I don't think I have the space for it but it seems like a fun idea. I have more stereo systems than rooms available and it would be nice to be able to switch back and forth.

 

And how on earth would they do that?

Unless they're turned on, they would hardly affect anything at all, and certainly a lot less than you sitting in the room to listen to them does.

 

So how about this, try connection a 2nd amp to the pre-amp outs from your main amp. Place two extra speakers, they can be bookshelves or what ever you happen to have on hand, in the rear, front left to right rear and vise versa.

Only takes a few minutes. See how you think that it sounds. You might like the results.

Give yourself a couple of hours to listen, then turn the rears off and listen what happens to the sound.

You can always disconnect everything in a few minutes time.

Never hurts to try something different, that what the journey is about.

 

Without looking at my equipment profile, I have my old Onkyo receiver hooked to my turntable, and hooked to my 1978 Jensen speakers. Obviously the vinyl setup.

For HT and digital, I have a Harmon Kardon receiver hooked up to 5 Yamaha speakers, and a subwoofer, and an Oppo 103.

Nothing affects anything, and they all live in peace with the cassette deck, TV, 2 DVD players, and a VHS.
.

 

They would absorb acoustic energy

 

Then don't I ? Anyone else in the room ? Furniture ? On and on...
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This is very interesting and timely for me as one of our daughters moved back in over the weekend and I lost the space where I was storing extra equipment. It was easy to rearrange everything except teh extra pair of speakers. My solution was to temporarily (hopefully) move the main speakers back about a foot and place the previously stored speakers in their place. My first impression when I listened to the newly placed speakers was, "my God they sound better than I remember." Maybe it was just because I hadn't listened to them for a while, but after reading this, maybe the speaker directly behind are somehow helping them.

Hmmm, I guess I'll have to remove the main speakers from the room to see if I notice a change.

 

Someday I'll get around to posting pictures, but I am one of those who has multiple systems in the same room, along with my collection of nostalgia. Why do I have multiple systems? Because just one system doesn't do what I need it to do. I have a main system, 7.1, which is the heart of a so-called home theater setup, playing records, CD's, SACD's, DVD's, Blu-rays, satellite TV, online TV, etc. The other system is a quadraphonic setup playing encoded records and reel-2-reel tapes. It also has that great 70's sound quality which I feel is superior to modern equipment. Which is why good quality 70's gear is so much in demand and prices keep rising. Sure, I could probably run the r2r into the multi-channel home theater setup, but I wouldn't be able to decode and demodulate the vinyl. And, no, Dolby will not decode the matrixed records. Totally different formats. For us old farts, Hell will freeze over before a new system will be made to do all what we may want it to do.

 

This is uncanny. I said this very thing to my wife when she walked in front of my speakers while I was critically listening to one of my favorite vinyls. I said "Hey Babe, you are absorbing acoustic energy!"

I'm in time out.

And since I wrote "vinyls", I think I'm going to be banned.

 

Good thing you don't play shellacs, waxes or polystyrenes!

 

yes but not the same way a speaker would

 

Your assertion is bizarre. It's a wooden box. With a cone. (most likely). It would not have any meaningful impact on the acoustics in the space, unless you put the speaker in front of your ears or blocking the other speakers.

However, you are correct, furniture and other people would not have the same impact as a speaker: a speaker would have vanishingly negligible impact while a person or furniture would have relatively significant impact (especially furniture).

 

Dude I don't think anybody our age wants to discuss how much acoustic energy we absorb. I've got enough worries with emitting acoustic energy at this point.

 

Of even greater concern than extra equipment in the room is the number of rooms I see with musical instruments on display. I know this from experience. We have a fairly small house so I have no dedicated listening room. My stereo is in the living room. So is my wife's piano.

If I play music at anything above a whisper, the piano sings along. I can press "pause" on the CD player mid-song and hear the soundboard and strings hum slowly die away for at least three-four seconds.

There's nothing I can do about it since neither the stereo nor the piano can go anywhere else and it really doesn't bother me but I'm aware that it subtly changes the sound. I have to assume that acoustic guitars and drum kits are gong to sing along as well.

 

Yup. You need a subwoofer for that.

 

You've imagined something that doesn't actually happen. It's understandable on some level, but it's not realistic. I'd guess you're thinking that an unused speaker cone will be activated by soundwaves from an adjacent speaker that is being used. What you might not be taking into account is the fact that actual voltage from an amplifier is required to make a voicecoil attached to a cone move by means of an electromagnetic driver. A tremendous amount of acoustic energy output from an adjacent speaker in use would be required to get an unused speaker cone to move in any meaningful way. The SPL would be on the level of 120db - so shockingly loud that any tiny contribution by the unused speaker (likely at -80 or so) would simply be grossly inaudible. The speakers in use would also have to contain extremely large drivers in order to generate sufficient room pressurization to force an unused cone to move in any way. Basically, outside of a serious testing lab, such an effect is not possible.

An unused speaker, positioned right next to a speaker in use in a listening room, cannot be measured for output because it is literally not outputting anything. The sound pressure level, even in a typical listening room in which a person is dangerously abusing his hearing at 85-90 db, is not high enough to excite an unused speaker cone in any audible or contributory or measruable way.