who uses two sets of stereo speakers?

These are my third pair of speakers. The sit directly across from the tan sofa.



Vintage, restored, Altec Lansing A7, VOTT's (Voice of the Theater) speakers, with JBL "Baby cheek's", 2404 super tweeters and custom crossovers. Custom crossovers are provided by ALK engineering. There is a commercial 15" passive horn loaded sub on the left side that is driven by a 1,600-Watt Crown amp.

The sub is used with both the tower speakers and the vintage Altec A7's.

When I gave all three systems playing, the two front towers are on my left (when seated) and the two rear towers are on my right, with the two Altec's in between them.

The Altec's are typically driven by an all tube system (after the DAC with digital sources, using a separate preamplifier and power amp(s).

 

I use a processor when in HT mode. It is simply another source that is added to the regular stereo components. This way the basic audio system is in no way compromised by the addition of HT functionality.

The processor is an Emotiva MC-700 4K processor.

Directly below the TV is the Oppo UDP-203 4K player, that is connected to the Emotiva processor via an HDMI cable.

This is how it currently looks with the new 65" curved screen TV.



The Oppo is used as a transport for CD's, going digitally into the iNova, to be converted to analog by the ESS Saber DAC.

The shelf above it has a center channel speaker from the Polk RTi line. We have the top of the line LSiM center channel speaker, but it is too large vertically, to fit in the audio rack.

On the lower left is the processor, on top if the mono center channel amplifier.

 

Some receivers/amps require an impedance of nothing lower than 8 ohms for each pair A+B FYI.

 

No
Flat packs
They sound fantastic and the speaker journey is almost over.

 

I use a Bryson DAC when in the 2-channel mode, that DAC is far superior to either the Oppo or Emotiva’s and incorporate a Sonora microRendu for streaming.

 

I take all digital and analog signals into the Peachtree iNova. I use its internal ESS Saber DAC to convert all digital signals into analog. I only use the iNova for the system source selector, class "A" preamp and system wide DAC. The iNova's internal power amp section is not used, in favor of external power amps.

Even though the iNova has a HT bypass on the analog section, I found that the sound was better if I took the front audio from the processor digitally and decoded it in the iNova. When in HT mode, I control the center channel's volume with the processor's remote and control the volume of the front mains with the volume control on the iNova.

 

Way of the future is Quadraphonics.. Back to the 70's.

 

A second set in another room does make sense to me, but not 2 sets of different loudspeakers in one room. My loudspeakers are able to reproduce all kinds of music in a convincing way and if I want to change, rather color the sound a little, I use a different cartridge or DAC. Recently I bought a new amp and had to reposition my speakers in order to get the sound I prefer most. Compared to my old amps, now I had to toe in the speakers less. Experimenting with speaker placement does alter the sound and position A/B is not necessarily better than the other. So, this can be a way of getting another sound without the need for a second pair of loud speakers.

 

This advice is very important as running 2 pair of 8 ohm nominal speakers presents a 4 ohm nominal load to your power source.

 

Well, for my quadraphonic system, of course I have to have 2 identical pairs of speakers, JBL 2800's, but in stereo mode, I can send the sound to either pair of speakers. For my 7.1 home theater system, the only matched speakers are the 4 Bose 201's. But then, those speakers wouldn't be good enough to use as primary speakers. That task is filled by my 2 American Acoustics(MTX) 12" 4-way ported speakers. No point in A/B-ing that setup.

 

When I first set up a pair of rear speakers, I bought an inexpensive $99 stereo receiver to run them, it was rated at 100-WPC.

While I was only going to use it for the single rear pair, it did have a A/B switch to allow two pairs of speakers to be connected. Thinking about this very thing one day, I got out the manual to look up what speaker load the receiver could take.

Locating the fine print on the speaker switch page, it stated that you were intending to power both sets of speakers at the same time, each speaker pair needed to be 16-Ohm speakers. It appears that the amp section was only rated to run a maximum of 8-Ohms period!

The receiver was not terribly bad and did what I needed it to do, back in the early days of the room. But it had one flaw. When the volume was turned up and if the receiver went into the slightest bit of clipping, instead of just the protection circuit cutting out for a moment or two, the entire receiver would shut completely off.

As this this became real annoying. I replaced it it with a power amp.

The rear speakers are powered by a small SS Emotiva 50-Watt Fusion Flex amplifier with two inputs.



The amp can drive a 4-Ohm load and has two pairs of inputs. I use one pair for HT, coming from the processor and the other pair comes of the iNova preamp output when in the stereo mode.

 

I have a large room with tall ceiling. Use Axiom M100v4 and KEF iq90 in A+B. Yamaha RX-Z9 drives them fine. Room filling sound, for sure.

 

Thanks for all the replies - most interesting reading and how varied the approaches! I was considering keeping the Rega RS5's and getting a new sub for room filling pleasure, plus new small monitors for more dedicated listening to jazz & acoustic tracks.

In the end some Tannoy Eatons where demo'd at home and after 3 weeks / 60 hours of positioning and playing was happy that they managed to both fill the room with a wide soundstage and sweetspot but also presented the detail SQ required for dedicated listening. The Regas are now sold.

 

Well, we all like speakers and you have to do what is needed when you buy more speakers and don’t want to get rid of your existing pair. That’s really the only reason for doing it, it never sounds better. One pair of speakers will never sound their best sitting next to another pair of speakers. It’s not how they were designed or voiced to work.

I was working hard to deny this basic truth but I recently moved a pair I had doubled up and the improvement wasn’t subtle. Position, focus and the room make good speakers sound great. That just isn’t possible with speaker piled on top of each other are crammed next to each other. You have to come to terms with why you are buying speakers. Are you an equipment collector or trying to have great sound?

 

Definitely the latter Was just exploring options.

My upgrades come in an 8 to 10 year cycle - but hopefully these Tannoys will be around for much longer!

 

You can be both, I have six pairs connected at the moment. I can’t deny I like collecting equipment but when you comprise their performance it seems to defeat the purpose.

And using A + B jacks at the same time is a bad idea. Your amp makes a constant amount of power and you are dividing the power to the speakers. It can be bad for the amp, it generally doesn’t help the speakers sound their best and listening to two sets of speakers at the same time is chaos.

 

Yes - idea was definitely not to play both pairs at once! Some older kit has ended up in other rooms (Mission spkrs, Cyrus amps, Marantz CDs) or sold.

Do you think you'll whittle down the 6 to 1 pair?

 

Oh god no. I’m quite fond of ever pair I have and they are all very diffident from each other. I’d move out a pair to replace with something better and will at some point. Each set it in a different room and driven by an amp I got for those speakers. Getting rid of something would mean selling a complete system and losing a room I can listen to music in.

 

I don't know if it counts, but I use 3 "sets"... or setups.
My main system, two modified Yamaha CBR12 and a sub (old cheap one that has basically every part upgraded over the years).
Definitely the best sound quality.

5.1 set for gaming, a simple Logitech Z906, solely bought for 3D sound to achieve situational awareness in games.
Very accurate directional sound, I can locate the source of sounds with pinpoint accuracy, so it does exactly what I was looking for.

Creative Inspire T6100 5.1 set, had been used for gaming and a TV, but I got rid of all of my TVs. It's used for testing DIY projects nowadays - it's cheap, it sounds cheap, but it's actually decently built so it's still running after 15 years.

 

Just wondering if in having two sets of speakers with very different attributes is there any difficulty deciding which to use at times? If they’re in the same system I might be torn at times as to which to choose in accordance with certain musical/material situations.

I can fully understand the benefits involved. I guess most of us want one system that can display all genres in the best light and that’s only natural but in truth that’s pretty hard to achieve.

I can definitely see the benefits of a big stage and near field listening setups if you’re in a very large space.

 

Classic first world problem!

 

I wouldn’t say it’s a music dependent situation for me, it’s a desire to hear a different presentation. I had HE speakers with a vintage tube amp next to towers driven by a 250wpc class A amp. Two very different sounding systems but tough to pick a winner on most days. The tube amp rig didn’t have as detailed bass so bluegrass music was a better choice for its strengths. Of the desire was to play at live concert levels or get super critical about listening, the Big amp system is the better choice. How long I listen for also made a difference.

 

I’d say it’s more intellectual curiosity, a big part of the equipment hobby.

 

My first stereo was an Emerson all in one system that had matching detached speakers. I was about 8 years old without any supervision, guidance or discussion and decided it would be cool to take the detachable speakers from a boom box and jam them into the same speaker terminals as the Emerson. It worked and I had four speakers playing music, I was super impressed with myself. That theory of “more speakers must be better” lasted until I got my first pair of good speakers, dahlquist dqm-5’s. At that point I was running a Mitsubishi component system my dad picked up at a department store that had A & B speaker terminals. It took about a day to realize playing those dahlquist at the same time as the massive Mitsubishi speakers was a very bad idea. It was on that day in about 1989 I realized that bigger speakers aren’t automatically better and more speakers doesn’t make an amazing wall of sound. I’m shocked by how some folks never get to that understanding.

also, those dahlquist are in my office and still sound great.