Stereo with four speakers

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karatestu
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Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by karatestu »

I tried summing stereo to mono and playing it through one speaker. It had some merits but I soon tired of it and it gave me a headache for some reason. So back to stereo through two speakers and normality was resumed.

My main aim with speakers is to produce an enveloping sound with lots of presence and a similar frequency response where ever you are situated in the room be that sat in a comfy sofa, stood up or sat on the floor playing with the kids.

Obviously, stereo point & squirt is just not going to cut it in this regard :naughty: How about a full omni set up like Shahinian or Larsen. Well I haven't tried replicating the tweeter arrangement of the Shahinian for example. I did try just one tweeter up firing and it doesn't bring respectable results.

With semi omni the sound is much the same where ever you are in a small room but you can't get away from the fact that in most places you are going to be nearer to one speaker than the other. That's why I tried summing stereo to mono played through one speaker. I didn't work and B&O must be using some new devilry to get it to work so well in their speakers. Just buy one of those B&O jobbies I hear you say. In a word no. They are unsuitable for my needs in so many other ways including scale (they are tiny).

I intend to have the inner firing tweeters playing at a higher volume than the other four to try and get a bit more of the output from the speaker which is further away from you. That doesn't work with the mid bass drivers though :(

So I got reading about four speakers for stereo on Steve Hoffman forum and others. Some like it and others don't. Apparently Dr Floyd Toole did some tests years ago and about 50% of the listeners preferred a more spacious sound like that from surround sound rather than two speaker stereo.

So one speaker in each corner, alternately right ch, left ch, right ch, left ch. You can wire two of them out of phase or all the same phase. Now the pain in the arse objectivists may conclude that this is just madness just like doping speaker cones, firing mid bass drivers at the ceiling, gluing steel to the insides of your speakers or having no damping material in them. The theorists would say you will get all kinds of phase issues with four speakers playing stereo with lots of nasty comb filtering going on.

Always one to stick two fingers up at convention, I fancy giving it a go some time. Not that i could fit another two of the behemoth's I currently use in my lounge. Got to thinking about corner speakers fitted to the walls (much like corner display cabinets that are in a triangular shape) and all firing to a centre point. Taking that further, how about the corner speakers being a prism shape and at ceiling height firing down in to the centre of the room ? Probably to radical for most but at least it gets the speakers out of the way :lol: With that though, you couldn't do semi omni it would have to be P & S :( .
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by Geoff.R.G »

Have you considered the "car" solution? In a car there are often four speakers tow behind the listener and two in front. There may be a small time delay between front and rear, variable in some cases or just a balance control between front and back. Both left speakers get the same signal as do the right speakers. It might be worth trying a pair behind the listeners to see if that makes any difference. I'd forget about time delays that requires too much processing of the signal.
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karatestu (Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:43 am)

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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by slinger »

Or you could just try a 5.1 amp?
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karatestu (Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:48 am)
Amps - NVA P50, AP30, A40, Stanislav Palo Tube Headphone Amp BB 85
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by antonio66 »

Dynavector did something similar 15 years ago, and you used 4 speakers. All I can remember is HiFi+ gave it a pretty good write up.
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karatestu (Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:53 am)

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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by karatestu »

Geoff.R.G wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:48 pm Have you considered the "car" solution? In a car there are often four speakers tow behind the listener and two in front. There may be a small time delay between front and rear, variable in some cases or just a balance control between front and back. Both left speakers get the same signal as do the right speakers. It might be worth trying a pair behind the listeners to see if that makes any difference. I'd forget about time delays that requires too much processing of the signal.
Hi Geoff. My room is only 3.8 M by 4.2 M and all the seating is right back to the walls so I can't get speakers behind anybody unless you are sat on the floor in the centre of the room. I agree about time delays and processing.
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by karatestu »

slinger wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:50 pm Or you could just try a 5.1 amp?
But Paul, NVA don't do 5.1 amps :naughty: Anyhow, I have never owned one although I do have six channels of power amplification :dance: Dont 5.1 amps do some processing ? Showing my lack of knowledge here. What happens when you play a stereo recording through one ?
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by karatestu »

antonio66 wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:22 am Dynavector did something similar 15 years ago, and you used 4 speakers. All I can remember is HiFi+ gave it a pretty good write up.
Cheers Ant. I have not come across that in my searches. The problem is if it requires any additional circuitry and I can't diy it then it's not going to happen. I want to keep things simple and true to the RD way if possible. Pretty sure he would think this idea is daft anyway.
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by slinger »

karatestu wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:53 am
slinger wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:50 pm Or you could just try a 5.1 amp?
But Paul, NVA don't do 5.1 amps :naughty: Anyhow, I have never owned one although I do have six channels of power amplification :dance: Dont 5.1 amps do some processing ? Showing my lack of knowledge here. What happens when you play a stereo recording through one ?
5.1 amps can do a variety of things. They'll play a straightforward stereo track through the two front speakers, or - depending on the amp - route it through four speakers in a sort of quadraphonic stereo, play it through all of the speakers - including the centre and the sub - in mono. There are quite a few possible configurations, as I say, depending on the amp.
Amps - NVA P50, AP30, A40, Stanislav Palo Tube Headphone Amp BB 85
Speakers - Monitor Audio Silver RX2
Cables - NVA LS1+LS3, SSC, Gotham S/PDIF, IBRA Optical
Digital - NAD C516BEE, SONY ST-SDB900 DAB TUNER, TEAC UD-H01 DAC
Analogue - Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Esprit SB, Graham Slee Gram Amp 2 Phono
Cans - Grado SR80, ATH-M50X

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karatestu
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by karatestu »

I just can't get my head round using a 5.1 amp from any manufacturer. They are bound to be music destroying effects based bollox. Doc would have said something similar. In fact he probably would have said stereo with four speakers is a stupid idea but not in those words.

It doesn't matter how many times i look at it the only way to having the same sound where ever you are in the room is to employ one of Bang & Olufsen's one speaker trickery things (new devilry). As you might imagine that does not sit well with me. Wirless connection, dsp and god knows what else.

Oh just kill me now. #neversatisfied
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Re: Stereo with four speakers

Unread post by karatestu »

:obscene-drinkingbuddies: P.S my back is driving me up the wall hence up at 1.30 am with Mr single malt :obscene-drinkingbuddies: :obscene-drinkingbuddies:
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