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Bispeakering...am I the only one?

Hello to everyone and the audiophiles. I have a limited budget as a grad student and so I can't afford those speakers that do everything well.

My JM Lab Electra 926s sound sublime - lots of space and refinement. But I always felt like a little more detail and dynamics could be possible (I had witnessed it in other systems) so I got some Triangle Comete ES monitors. WOW! What a difference. Detail and dynamics like crazy. I have tried upwards of 40 pieces of gear so far (excluding tweaks and cables) and these two pairs of speakers are by far the most different. Who says the speaker isn't the biggest player? However, I digress...

So, on one hand I have the big-space speakers and on the other, I have the high-detail speakers. I originally did this to have two systems for different music. However, combine the two and voila, I have a megaspeaker capable of space AND dynamics. The JM Labs are pushed by my McIntosh MC7200 and the Triangles are caressed by my Conrad-Johnson MV55.

Now mind you, it ain't easy integrating them and you need a preamp with two sets of outputs and some sort of amp gain control. But get the soundstages to overlap appropriately and this wacky speaker system will knock your socks off for a mere $2700 used. I have yet to hear any speakers in that range that can do better across the board. In this case, 3+2=10. Not to mention how nice it is to have a "center channel" effect with TV thanks to the super-focused image of the Triangles. Of course you need two amps but this is only an aid for tailoring the sound.

With examples of multiple-driver speakers abound, this approach adds a couple advantages to the idea. My two pairs are so different that they have "decoupled" strengths so I can play to each one individually. Also, there is less driver interaction since there are separate cabinets for microdynamics (Triangles) and macrodynamics (JM Lab). See my system page for pics.

I am shocked at how satisfied I am with this approach. The depth, layering, soundstaging, focus, clarity, detail, order, sophistication have all improved, all at once. Even the really expensive components I have tried (and can't afford) didn't make this much of a positive impact in my system.

Has anyone else tried something like this? Arthur
aball
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
Surely speaker placement, driver phase alignment, and matching dynamic response at various sound levels would all be very hard to achieve with two separate and differently designed speakers.

A home theatre can take hours to set up even when starting with matched speakers with similar timbre from the same manufacturer.

I think you may indeed be the only one to have found magic from combining simultaneuosly two speakers with different drivers over the same frequency range. (with the exception of sub woofers, a common additional speaker, that drives non-directional extreme LF)
bigjoe's avatar
bigjoe
693 posts
 
hi arthur.

its posts like this that make this hobby interesting for me,i also like to go outside of the normal train of audiophile wisdom & try new things.

ive been using the multiple speaker approach for years now,all my rigs have at least 2 seperate sets of speakers,sometimes i even throw in a center speaker powered with a blended l & r signal,i much prefer this type of ultra dynamic sound,i also prefer to use speaker systems that excell at different things.

ive ran many different combinations of speakers in this fashion but my favorite combination so far was klipsch corner horns,mcintosh xrt 22's & a jm labs center,i powered the khorns with a mc2102 tube amp & the xrt 22's with a mc500 solid state then the jm labs center with a mc60 tube amp.

the way you described how the sound is in your rig is exactly how i would describe the sound from mine running speaker systems this way.

having gain controls on all the amps really helps to intergrate the different speakers,it took some messing around for me to get the sound right but after a few hours of trying different scenario's & getting the mix perfect i swore i would never go back to a single pair of speakers & i haven't nor will i ever.

have fun with your new sound,this post made me want to listen to my rig now,thanks!
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Aball,
Greetings, you seem to be on the Quest for the Ultimate Sound...(having burned through 40 components so far!)
A while back I did something similar, a "Stacked" speaker configuration. I had two sets of Eminent Technology LFT-8A speakers (hybrid planars) with 8 chanels of amplification. Around 2,400 watts into 4 ohms.

It was an incredible experience. Phenomenal POWER and PRESENCE like I've never heard before or since in a system in my home. It sounded like you were really AT the concert...

However, I had a guest who mentioned that my system was weak on "imaging". That got me thinking. I was waaaay on the soundstage side of things, and needed to come waaay back toward the imaging (detail) side of things.

So, I sold it all, went to a very simple setup that I'm currently running, with a two chanel amp and single wired speakers. I went up a level in the quality of the components and went for simple and quality pieces. I am actually mutch happier with the detail than the soundstage. I still have about 75% of the soundstage but a lot more detail and beauty in the sound.

I'm sure you're going to have quite a bit of fun in the years ahead! One thing; try to chronicle your euqipment that you've owned. I wish I had pictures of all the gear I've gone through; it would be a great nostalgia trip.

Have you visited audioreview.com yet? May save you some unnecessary "flipping" of gear. But, if you're like me, you secretly relish the chase for the next component...

You can see a pic of my 'stacked' ET's as well as the current rig under my name.
xiekitchen
821 posts
 
I've tried sitting my Spica TC-50's on top of backward firing JBL 1-66 Horizons hooked up in series, not parallel, to the same amp with pleasing results placed 4 feet from back wall. I would try your combination with just ONE amp, if run in parallel IF your amp can handle it. It's fun to fool around.
aball OP
2,016 posts
 
Howdy folks! I really didn't think I would get any replies so it was with great delight that I read your posts.

Joe - I always knew you had a bunch of speakers but didn't realize you played them at the same time. JM Lab and McIntosh, great combo! ;)

I have tried all sorts of combinations - the Mc running both pairs was good but even with 490W into 4 ohms, the big dynamic peaks at loud levels got compressed. Imaging suffered a little too. I guess this is why biamping is popular.

I swapped the amps around but that didn't work out too well. The CJ doesn't care for the JMs at all! Turned its nose right up at them. The Mc was just too much for the Triangles - too "hifi" sounding with way more detail than my poor recordings deserve. But I left this test feeling that the majority of the sound signature definately boils down to the speakers.

I feel that having different speakers would be a requirement. Intuitively, two pairs of ET sound like imaging would suffer. That is part of the reason that I got some monitors for the imaging part of the work and left the big dogs to do the soundstaging.

I see all this stereo business as one massive experiement. That is why I named my system as such. There is so much we don't know and so much we speculate about, why not try anything just to see what happens? There are no rules if we don't know everything! I feel it is a shame that so many folks come to Audiogon for others to tell them what to do. They should forge ahead and make their own paths, just like you guys, so thanks for your refreshing posts.

Arthur
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