HOW TO POSITION 2 PAIRS OF SPEAKER FOR ALTERNATE LISTENING

Thanks guys

As I said, perhaps you should make the best of the situation and give each pair of speakers the best possible placement and let it go from there.

....wolfies' been watching too much Ironman, Batman with the volume up wayyy.....high.....;)

...I've got the same problem +/-, but aesthetics....*eh* 

Speakers are 120 lbs a bit tough to move them around =(

Ha

There was a similar suspicion that telephones and cell phones “resonated” when in the same room with a speaker demo, but that turned out to be something more uh, unspeakable. I.e., it not (rpt not) the tiny telephone or cell phone speaker that was responsible for hurting the sound, but something completely out of the blue and, frankly, a little scary. 😬

I have to give you an answer you won’t like, but such is life. If you want a True, accurate sound comparison anything done to keep the speakers in the same room at the same time simply for convenience is a compromise therefore you will not get a true comparison. It’s a pain in the derriere but you must move one pair of speakers out of the room and set up the other pair properly, listen to them, get accustomed to them, take them out and do the same with the second pair. Never Promised You a Rose Garden. Sometimes this hobby sucks but there it is. I will add one caveat if you're not dealing with a critical listening pair of speakers or system and it is not that important to you to have a true accurate comparison in it and it's just background music then who cares probably doesn't matter a bit. you didn't mention the type of speakers or system you were using so all this maybe for not. Just saying.

The place where the second pair will have the least impact is behind the first pair. Turntables. I know of one shop that employed this solution before they moved. 

i have 4 bose 901 speakers i bought back in 1971. at that time bose had a system that was called 'the super bose system' anyway you would have the 2 speakers up front and the other 2 on both sides to bring the soundstage out.to the left and right.

@stfoth  Can't respond about hearing an audible impact.  The only time I've experienced multiple speaker pairs in the same room is at a dealer's and they are not usually interested in moving other speakers out of the room to accommodate to a customer unless serious $ is at stake.

The biggest problem is that you may want each pair of speakers in the same location in the room when being listened to. Better to put the unused pair in another location in the house. If the unused pair must be in the room, short the speakers by running jumpers from positive to negative terminals, and cover them with a blanket.

I have seen the mids/woofers moving a little so I just moved them out. I can’t remember if I heard a difference or not, it’s been years

@rbstehno @hifiman5 Have you heard an audible impact?  It makes sense and functioning as resonators, but many showrooms have multiple sets.  I think the effect has to be slight...at least I hope so.

@rbstehno  +1  The effect will be a slight "smearing" of the sound of the speakers that are playing.

According to Jim smith, you never want more than 1 pair of speakers in a room. The driven pair will start to move the cones of the standby pair

Infinity I usually have speakers to rotate, what I do, I move forward the one Iam using at least 5 inches... I get good result when I do that....

Did you try reversing positions?
Do all the permutations, if possible.
B

I did tried it, it isnt too bad. I align them on the same line, but both has different toe-in. The outside pair sounded much better, the inside pair got slightly congested.

Oh, wolfie, you are a bad man...

@infinity_audio 
I think you are just going to have to accept that there will be some interaction with the adjacent speaker. But, then everything in the room will contribute to affecting sound reproduction.
If it were me, I would try to set up each pair as best as possible and not concern myself with any interactions. You can only do so much...
Bob

Cover the speakers not in use with a fur covered oil drum filled with goose down, or use several thick wool blankets, or use a system that lowers the unused speakers into the floor and covers them with a hatch…like one of those automatic television screen retractors.

We've all seen those crowded demo rooms in stores, with 4 or 5 speakers x2 lined up like soldiers on parade.  Unless there's free space to both sides, there's going to be some deleterious effects.  I'd rather put some of some furniture sliding pads under them--not ideal, but better than having them cheek-by-jowl.

Erik, I have 2 pairs of floorstanders I want to use. I have a system with push pull amp and I have one with SET. I hope to align them together so I can alternate my listen as my wish. By sitting the speakers AB   BA next to each other, I am afraid that the speaker that is not in-use acts as an extend baffle of the one next to it. I was wondering if there is a special / specific method for aligning / angling / toe them.

Can you be a little more specific about what you want to achieve?

In general, in professional systems they use delays and EQ's to add fill speakers close to the listener, while still giving the illusion that the sound is coming from the main stage.

Best,

E

It depends how big are the speakers, either way there is compromise mostly on soundstage, depth I think...