Can I connect two speakers together?

Bought a pair of Wharfdale bookshelf speakers which I'm loving. Have an older pair of B&W 601 that the Wharfdales replaced. Now I'm wondering: can I wire these two speakers together? IF so, would I get better sound and/or would anything be improved??? Have an integrated amp putting out 100 wpc so power is no problem, just wondering if there would be any benefit or if it can be done at all

 

no. two televisions won't give you a better picture

 

If your amp has 2 pair of speaker inputs then yes you could. But you won't get better sound listening to them.

 

OK, good to know. Then guess I'll sell the B&Ws, or wait to build a second system. Already have two turntables, two Nak tape decks, so all I need now is another integrated amp

 

That doesn't really apply to audio. Back when I was young and broke I ran two sets of speakers....the "bottoms" were big but cheap speakers that did good bass and not much else, and then I put a pair of speakers (L+R from a cheap surround-in-a-box system) that were, by themselves thin and tinny. Running both together sounded substantially better than either alone. I did have a proper amp designed to run two sets of speakers though.

 

In general, running two distinctly different speakers together won't make for better sound but occasionally the rule is broken in a spectacular way. I've heard it work astoundingly well. It doesn't happen often but what have you got to lose by trying?

One of the joys of this hobby is playing with the toys.

 

Well, if you had an out-focus color TV next to a sharp black-and-white TV I suppose the total result would be more visual information, just like your speaker setup case. But one good TV one one good set up speakers is better than two inferior things together.

Connecting an extra set of speakers will always be louder, and you will notice new things in the sound, but that doesn't mean the sound is better.

As for OP, consider selling both sets of speakers to upgrade to a better set. Unless the Wharfedales are pretty new which it sounds like. As for a second system, any old amp or receiver will get you going; troll Craigslist and eBay. Or Salvation Army stores even.

 

There seems to be favorable results and fan base for "Advent Stacking"

 

If you have one set of outputs then you will be changing the impedance/load in a way that the unit may not be designed for, which will also probabnly change the response curve. Add to that alignment/phase shifts and potential comb filtering.
If you have 2 sets of speaker outs its better but you still have additions/cancellations that can happen with mismatched speakers. Sometimes its pleasing and some times its not.

 

That's one.

My favorite example came from 1977 and a friend who was comparing the sound of a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10s with a pair of Magnapan MG IIs. I had left both at his house so he could switch back and forth between them. He didn't know which to buy. My buddy excitedly called me at my stereo store one afternoon and said he'd hooked them up together. It sounded better than either individually. I told him he was on drugs. A bipolar speaker with a direct radiator? An inefficient speaker with an even more inefficient speaker? A five way with a two way? How many audio rules was he trying to break? He insisted it sounded wonderful. One thing that certainly helped was he was using a GAS Son of Ampzilla to drive the four speakers and it loved just about any load you put on it. That 80 wpc amp was probably putting out close to 200 watts into that load.

I went to his house after work and was blown away. Outside of flipping them so that the Maggies were on the inside with the Dahlquist flanking them, as opposed to the other way around which he had first tried, I did nothing but enjoyed the system. It was awesome.

I tried the combo in my own apartment and it totally sucked. It also didn't work in my friend's next house. The mix shouldn't have worked and it certainly didn't in those other rooms. But in that first room, which was a converted mobile home, it was one of the best speaker systems I've ever heard.

 

Wharfedales are Diamond 10.1 so fairly new. Happy with them with no desire to upgrade

 

Sure it can be done, if you do it in parallel you have to be concerned about how low impedance your amp can handle. No you won't get better sound, you'll just have more strain on your amp and two pairs of speakers playing. If they're in two different rooms or something, makes sense. Makes less sense in one room unless you really like just a mess of sound coming from everywhere, but hey, some people like that and it's a free country.