Bi-Polar vs. non bi-polar speakers (1 Viewer)

[Mario_C]

"Never" is too strong a word here!

Yeah, you are right I should had chosen my words more carefully.
I also have a sony receiver 555ES and I am familiar with the surround modes ( although not with the virtual surround 6.1).
Like I said do what you feel sounds better. I used the Auto Format Decode setting on my receiver. As I do not like to alter the original soundtrack. That is my preference.
quote: The quote from the Audio Perfectionist Journal makes sense from a Music perspective: bouncing sound off of a wall is NOT accurate, therefor speakers that do this are no good.
But Movies are full of artifical sounds. Ever fire a real handgun? Does it sound anything like the shots from Terminator 2 or The Matrix? Of course not. (Dont even get me started on outer-space battles )
But bipolar speakers ENHANCE the movie experience by giving you an artifical sense of space:

yes, but some movies have specific sound effect that need to be localized. Don't they? Dialogue coming from the surrounds or LR is not uncomon in todays movies. So you will lose the localization as the speech will become diffuse. right?
What do you guys think?
ps- The Spell check feture is not working for some reason.
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[Edited last by Mario_C on September 06, 2001 at 08:26 PM]

 

[Bob_A]

Mario some bipolars have very good localization while still having an "enhanced" soundstage. Remember that they are more diffuse than direct radiators but not as diffuse as dipolars.
[Edited last by Bob_A on September 06, 2001 at 10:24 PM]

 

[Bob McElfresh]

yes, but some movies have specific sound effect that need to be localized. Don't they? Dialogue coming from the surrounds or LR is not uncomon in todays movies. So you will lose the localization as the speech will become dffuse. right?

Very good point Mario. This must be the reason that companies noted for good HT speakers make Bipolar towers, but direct-radiator centers.
The one movie that I know about that sends a lot of dialog to the L/R speakers when the actors are at the edges of a scene is Star Trek:Insurrection. And I dont recall much loss during these scenes with my bipolars.
But dialog is not like long, sustained notes of a singer, or the continous sound of a violin/horn instrument. So there may be some distortion, but I may not be able to tell.
But another point that people have not brough up is this:
Some reflection from the walls of a room is desireable! Even for music.
If this was not true, audiophiles would coat their entire room with sound-absorbing material and try to stop ALL reflections. They dont.
(Ok, professionally installed rooms have "treatments" to prevent the major/intense/early reflections from hitting the listener. But the goal is NOT to stop all reflections. Just to reduce the more intense ones.)
If you go to a movie theater, you KNOW you are in a large room because of the reflections/echo. This is also an effect of a concert hall, music theater, etc.
Bipolar speakers simply give you enhanced reflections to allow a small living room to take on the "air" of a larger room.
Is this accurate? No.
Does this "muddy" the sound or make it un-intelligable? Not really.
The reflected sound IS perceived as distortion. And yes, you can have too much. But this is usually solved by pulling the speakers into the room so that the volume of the reflected sound is reduced.