Dipole or regular surrounds? (1 Viewer)

[sam37]

Hey there. I have 1 set of speakers left to buy and I would like some assistance in deciding what I need.

I'm wondering what advantage dipole speakers provide, and do I need to go with those or just regular speakers (direct radiating I guess they are called).

As far as room acoustics, well, I can just describe the setting of my living room. I live in an apartment, and my living room is open to the kitchen. Where I sit is with the main part of the living room with the kitchen area behind me, so the total room space is longer than it is wide, i.e., the couch is about 10 to 12 feet from the tv, and then there is about 12 to 15 feet of space behind me. The room is about 14 feet wide.

So with this setup, i'm not sure if i need to go with regular speakers or dipole for my surrounds.

If it is dipole, i know which speakers I am going to buy, but if it is regular speakers, then i'm not sure. If it is regular, do the surrounds have to be a special type, or can the surrounds be just another set of front speakers? In other words, could you use a set of front bookshelf speakers as your surrounds?

Thanks

 

[SethH]

A couple questions:

1 - What do you plan to use your system for? Just movies/tv, or also multi-channel music?

2 - Where do you plan to mount your speaker relative to your seating position?

In a 5.1 system dipole surrounds should really be directly to the sides of the listening position and should be a couple feet above your head when seated. If this placement is not possible, then I would look at either monopole ("regular") or bipole.

I have a unique pair of speakers that I've enjoyed. They are the Cambridge Soundworks Newton S300's. They have a switch on the bottom that allows you to select dipole/monopole/bipole. It's a good option if you aren't sure which type you want or if you might move sometime and are not sure what your new layout will be.

To answer your last question, another pair of bookshelf speakers will work for surrounds. Frequently people will buy a pair of speakers that is one or two steps down from their main speakers, but made by the same company in the same series of speakers.

 

[sam37]

Where I sit, there is a place to mount the speakers on the wall directly to the sides of me, or to the side of and behind me if I want. There is no place to mount the speakers directly behind me, for that, I would have to go with speaker stands.

 

[SethH]

Dipoles are generally not considered ideal for multi-channel music, but they will work if you aren't too picky about it.

With dipoles you generally want to have them directly to the sides of the listener mounted about 2 feet higher than the listeners' ears when seated. If you go with monopole you should experiment with placing them directly to the sides or just a little behind you.

As to which you should buy, that's tough to say. They produce a very different listening environment. I tend to prefer the more diffuse sound field produced by dipoles (and by bipoles to a lesser degree). My advice would be to try and find a good audio shop somewhere nearby where you could listen to both options and decide which you prefer.

 

[Mark Sherman]

Di poles and Bipoles work the best if they have a wall to reflect off of. In yourset up they are going into the Kitchen not the best way to go if you are using dipoles/bipoles. In your case I would go for a reg. set of bookshelf speakers

 

[sam37]

Ok, so, if I go with regular speakers, do you orientate them the same as dipole speakers? I.e. do you have them on the walls to the sides facing inward (or toward the listener), or do you have them mounted so they are facing forward (or toward the front of the room)?

I don't have a place around here that has any regular speakers set up as surrounds, they all, as far as I know, have dipole set up as surrounds. So, I will likely just buy a set of bookshelf speakers and if I don't like them, I can exchange them for dipoles.

 

[Phil_O]

I've always used dipoles for the diffuse soundfield for movies. I'm not really picky about multichannel music. It still gives you environment but not precise location of sound. Dipoles work well a little higher up and a little farther behind also. They're more forgiving in other words. I usually say go for direct radiating if you're into more music (for precise location of sound) and dipole (more diffuse, environmental but still separated) for movie-oriented systems. And yes there are speakers that can be switched as Seth said.