Two pairs of main speakers in same room?

[majnun70]

I know those of you with home theater setups obviously have multiple pairs of speakers in the same room, but how many of you have two pairs of main speakers on the same side of the room? Perhaps you have a favorite pair that is not tube friendly and wish to have an occasional dip into the SET pool and need a second, SET-friendly pair in the same room?

I'm in the latter camp, but don't have a room wide enough to accommodate two pairs on the same plane and am worried that having a second pair behind the first would be a barrier (literally and figuratively) to good sound quality for either pair. I do wonder if the type of speaker (e.g. box vs box-less, dipole/omni-directional vs directional, horns in the corners, planars, etc) makes any difference.

Any experience/thoughts? It's entirely possible that I'm overthinking this, but I would rather not invest in a second pair and SET amp if there's too much acoustic impact.

My current speakers are Wilson Sophia 2, and room is 10x17x9 (it's actually 8' ceiling for about 40% of the room).

 

[the professor]

Most people can definitely tell a difference between a single pair and additional speakers. Whether its enough of a difference to go to the bother is a personal decision.

I know some people have gotten around this by having a high damping factor amp feeding / giving resistance to the non-used pair of speakers. But it seems to me that it would be easier to cover the speakers with some sound proofing materials, or move them each time.

 

[majnun70]

Ok, that's what I was afraid of. I guess I won't really know until I try...

 

[apdoc2004]

I have had 2 sets of speakers in the same room (on the front wall and a side wall) and could not tell any difference between having 2 sets versus one -- the best thing to do is to try that set up in your room.

Anshul