[charmerci]

Does anyone else listen to two (or more?) speaker brands to listen to music?

My computer is hooked up through a Denon receiver to some Cambridge Soundworks and Paradigm speakers and while they aren't great speakers in terms of accurate reproduction, they don't hurt my ears while playing at the same time.

[Letitroll98]

You mean two pairs of speakers I assume?  Not a Cambridge Soundworks for the left and a Paradigm for the right?

If the first scenario, yes, lots of people mix the brands in their home theater systems, which many listen to music on.  I have Polks on the fronts and Athenas on the rear channels.  The rear channels are just ambient info so as long as the two are of similar tonal qualities it won't matter much, but the only music I listen to on them is Blueray discs.  For my Stereo system I have two sets of speakers set up, PSBs and Maggies, and I switch between them for fun or comparisons.

If it's the second scenario you need help, now.    

[Ericus Rex]

You mean four speakers playing at once but still running in stereo and not some surround mode? 

[srb]

You mean four speakers playing at once but still running in stereo and not some surround mode?

I've tried that with a number of different speaker combinations just for the heck of it, but even though the sound can be somewhat "fuller", to me it was always less accurate accompanied by collapsed soundstage and imaging, and was never as good sounding as each individual pair of speakers by themselves.

I do know some people who swear by it, but they tend to use words like "awesome" and "dude". 

Steve

[charmerci]

I've tried that with a number of different speaker combinations just for the heck of it, but even though the sound can be somewhat "fuller", to me it was always less accurate accompanied by collapsed soundstage and imaging, and was never as good sounding as each individual pair of speakers by themselves.

I do know some people who swear by it, but they tend to use words like "awesome" and "dude". 

Steve

Yeah dude, I mean all 4 playing at the same time!   

In my case, I paid $90 for both sets and because each have there shortcomings, they sound rather awesome together.  (Well, as I said they don't hurt my ears - too much.)

[srb]

It probably depends a lot on which specific speakers are used in combination, whether there is too much reinforcement, cancellation or comb filtering.

Many people have had better results using stacked pairs of the same model speaker, with Dynacos and Advents being some of the more popular ones used.

I guess I could see where a mismatched combination might make up for deficiencies of either speaker, particularly with lesser speakers, but when I tried it with really good speakers, I lost the the pure tonality and the stereo image was affected.

But in each particular case, if it sounds better, then it does!

Steve

 

[neekomax]

Yeah dude, I mean all 4 playing at the same time!   

In my case, I paid $90 for both sets and because each have there shortcomings, they sound rather awesome together.  (Well, as I said they don't hurt my ears - too much.)

I tried this for a hot second when I first got into (home) audio a couple years ago. Basically I had two pairs of speakers, neither of which sounded very good to me. Since I had just gotten both an integrated with pre outs, and a passive pre integrated that I was using as a power amp, I hooked a pair up to each set of taps. It was kinda cool because I could play with the volume on each amp and sort of come up with a 'cocktail' sound that, actually, was probably better than either speaker was on its own, in retrospect. 'Cause they both pretty much sucked.

I found the thread I started about it, I even posted a photo of the setup! Everyone was very kind and gently let me know that I probably would do better just using one pair of good speaks, which I eventually did. Funny to go back and read my uber-noob posts!...   

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=96973.msg970576#msg970576

Some of the same commenters on that thread, too. Thanks for being cool, guys 

[charmerci]

 

Now that I'd love to hear!   

Well, you know how it goes. I'm just browsing through thrift shops and oh! there's a cheap, decent pair of speakers to take home and then before you know it, I've got a collection!

[underdawg]

what a wiring nightmare above on the cube

[dB Cooper]

Where's the sub?

[srb]

It might be a modern "art" display in some kind of gallery, and I don't know if it's functional or not.  It is kind of impressive though, to be able to construct a near perfect cube out of different sized speakers.

Series, Parallel, Series, Parallel, Series, Parallel .....

Steve

[srb]

Where's the sub?

I don't know, but this might be one of the drivers for it .....

Steve

 

[mboxler]

 

Impedance is Futile!

[charmerci]

Where's the sub?

IF you can get this working, I seriously doubt that you need a sub!!!

[simoon]

Yeah dude, I mean all 4 playing at the same time!   

In my case, I paid $90 for both sets and because each have there shortcomings, they sound rather awesome together.  (Well, as I said they don't hurt my ears - too much.)

If you are happy with the results, that's all that matters.

In general though, it is not a good idea, IMO. You have different speakers, by different designers, interacting in who knows what manner.

You might get a fuller sound and they will play louder, but it creates more problems than it solves. You create all sorts of unpredictable interference patterns that will result in an unpredictable frequency curve.

If you're going to do it, the best way (again, IMO) to set them up is to stack them vertically with the top set upside down so the tweeters are as close together as possible. This will approximate an MTM system.

[charmerci]

If you're going to do it, the best way (again, IMO) to set them up is to stack them vertically with the top set upside down so the tweeters are as close together as possible. This will approximate an MTM system.

Sounds like a great idea! But I just got those Pioneer spbs22's. I'm listening to those. I'm over it for now.