The answer from me to the OP: It depends.
I think it depends on several things such as the type of monitor doubled or tripled, the size of the bezel, the aspect ratio, the distance from the sitting position, the amount of desk space you have, and distance/space available between your speakers.
Up until now, I ran with three monitors. One Dell U3014 30" 16:10 for my main, center display and two, older 24" 16:9 Viewsonics on each side. It worked, however, my speakers were being partially mask by the outside monitors. My room and setup could not allow much wiggle room to push the speakers (on stands) further out and back. My desk also isn't very deep. Only 30" front to back so I couldn't push the monitor "wall" back further to get it behind--or in line--with the speakers.
Fast-forward to about a week ago. I found and bought a nice, used Dell U3014 for a good price. My intention was to ditch the 3-screen setup and go with 2...two 30" 16:10 displays. Well, the bezels on the U3014's are a bit much, when doubled, and due to the constraints of my desk and speakers, the only way I could configure them is side-by-side, directly in front of me. It just felt awkward. Centering one monitor and putting the other to the side was extremely awkward. IMO, these monitors are just too big and tall to run a multi-monitor setup on a normal desk with limiting factors.
So I'm down to one display. One 30" U3014. I use Live, so flipping between Session and Arrangement views works well with one monitor anyway, so no sweat there. However, I think I will miss the other monitors for plugins and VST's, which were frequently filling up the space on the 2nd and 3rd monitors of the previous setup.