Dipole surround question (1 Viewer)

[Bob Saylor]

I'm considering dipoles for surrounds. I have direct radiators now. I do listen to 5.1 music and like the direct radiators for that.

However, I'm curious as to how well the dipoles would work for 5.1 music?

How far from a back wall is recommended for dipoles?

My seating goes out to within inches of the side walls. Would that hurt?

Would I put the surrounds on the side, right above the seats or or mostly behind, with maybe only a few inches of the speaker above the seat? Or on the side walls but behind the seats?

My third option with my narrow room is to put a dipole in the center spot. I understand this works quite well.

Any info would be appreciated and simplify my decisions.

 

[David Barteaux]

Stick with direct radiators for multichannel music. I have dipole surrounds and they dont't work well with the front channels for music.

 

[Scott*E]

Dipoles work best with Dolby Pro Logic because the surround channel is mono and the speakers firing out of phase with each another create a wider sound that is harder to localize, kind of a "fake" stereo effect. You don't want that effect with 5.1. Stick with what you have.

 

[Geoff S]

Dipoles are required if you're trying to go for a for 'THX correct' setup with movies.

Dipoles will sound flat, and not work well for multichannel music.

If you want the best of both Worlds, try things such as rear surrounds that can do both modes, or a receiver/amp that has 2 sets of surround outputs.

For example (and I cite what I know, these equipment models are not the only solutions), The Denon AVR-4802 has a 'Surround A' binding post output for movie dipoles/bipoles/omnipoles. And a 'Surround B' binding post output for direct radiating music speakers. Then you select with DSPs go with which surround set.

As for speakers, I've heard the the Boston Acoustics VR-MX surrounds can do direct and diffuse. I'm yet to fully verify this but I'm planning on getting these soon so then I'll know for sure.

Placing dipole speakers is not hard:

*Place them on the side walls even with the listening position, about 2-3ft above your ear.

*The active side should be facing front and the passive/tweeter only side should be firing to the rear of the room.

With bipoles both sides are the same so it doesn't matter which one is left and which one if right. Same for omnipoles. If rear mounting dipoles, which isn't ideal, but okay if you have good placement forgiving speakers, place them with the active side facing inside towards you, about 2-3ft above your ear. How far apart is up to you as long as they're at least just outside the furthest left/right listening position.

The downside to rear mounting is that a surround back speaker or two for EX/ES is hard to fit in to the scheme.

BTW, what 'center spot' are you refering to?

 

[itai]

Bob, Denon recievers lets you conect two sets of surounds and a/b them at your leisure. you can have both sets.
in a narrow room though, direct fires would be kinda tricky to place. those dipoles might be handy.
they should sit in line with the listener, firing to the rear and front, mounted on a wall, not away from, because they need to reflect their sound from it.
but they work good on back walls as well, as i've discovered...

 

[Bob Saylor]

Thanks guys. Maybe I'll just go with the dipole rear center option.
Geoff, the center I was refering to was to put a dipole speaker on the wall between the two side surround speakers.