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Putting speakers next to other speakers

I have two systems, The main one at home which has B&W 800d3s, and the "less expensive" in my office (smallish) basement has Proac d100's. I am pretty sure my favourite speakers are the Proacs, but they are 200 miles away and will take some hefty lifting to bring home. My aim would be to put them both side by side at home and just swap speaker cables from time to time to test and then decide which set up to persevere with.
Yes I know it is frowned upon ... cross vibration etc etc ... in theory .. but IN PRACTICE can this work? The Proacs are big and are very close to my basement wall but sound great. From a layman's point of view what is difference between a wall and close speaker? I reckon in practice all will be ok - but it is an experiment that will take significant lugging around and swearing! Not something lightly undertaken.
I am not looking for technical reasons why I am doomed to failure .. I can read enough of that already. I am looking for the real world good news ACTUAL experiences which defy gloomy theorists. Both speakers are built as heavy as sin .. so should just be normal "room obstacles" that we have to cope with in a living room.
tatyana69
erik_squires
16,041 posts
 
This discussion is academic, without a decent solution. What is your alternative? Are you going to build two rooms? Are you going to put them all on wheels, listen to one pair, then swap them?

I'm pretty sure the answer to all of this is no, so set them up side by side, alternating speakers from L to R so neither pair is entirely inside the other.

You will listen and pick the better of the two, or you'll keep both.

Also, of course, this being a basement, before you do this testing, treat your room.

Best,

E
simonmoon's avatar
simonmoon
515 posts
 
From experience, I know it is a compromise for both sets of speakers.

Bass not be as tight on both sets, imaging and soundstage will not be as good.

But if you do it, make sure you stagger them, so each pair has an inside and an outside speaker. Chances are, that the optimum position for both sets of speakers in the same room, will be very close. If you put one pair inside the other pair, one pair will be more compromised than the other. At least if you stagger them, their distance away from each other will be the same.  
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
You should be able to hear the sound deteriorate when any additional speakers are brought into the room. Or any other audio or music related items even if they’re just sitting there on the floor not hooked up. This includes but is not limited to speakers, cables, amps, violins, guitars and even pictures of musical instruments. Even CDs and LPs as I’ve oft cautioned. The more CDs or LPs you cram into the room the worse the sound gets. Yes, I know you don’t hear that too much, gentle readers. That’s because I’m from the future. I only come back here for the jokes.
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Actually it’s the opposite, the more random crap you put into a room the better it sounds. 
steve59's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
steve59
1,759 posts
 
Both expensive speakers so why wouldn’t you want to set each pair up perfectly? If you keep both speakers of the same brand on the left of the other pair so they’re the same distance apart maybe it’ll work. I’ve seen shops in the past do it. Personally I use a dolly and get the unused pair as far away as I can when demoing.
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