Can someone give me a summary types of surround speakers? (1 Viewer)

[joel jocson]

Title should say it all but I guess i can get a little more detailed here. I see different types of speakers used for surrounds. Can anyone tell me the different types and when to use which for what scenario??

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Don't quite see what you are asking. Do you mean like direct-radiating versus dipole/bipole surrounds?

 

[Cees Alons]

I'll move this thread to the speaker forum. You will probably get more answers there.

Cees

 

[cabreau]

If you sit far away, get direct readiating speakers (normal speakers).

If the area is very small and you sit right next to the surrounds, then I'd suggest looking into bi-pole/dipole speakers. Not sure what the exact differences are though. I was going to go with dipoles at one time, but someone convinced me to just stick with normal speakers for the surrounds and they work fine.

 

[joel jocson]

to answer wiggles question.. direct radiating vs bipoles vs dipoles vs anything else you can think of. when and would you use each type for a surround.

 

[JohnSmith]

Monopoles- standard direct sounding speakers. Used for front three, and possibly sides & rears (depending on setup)

Bipoles- both sides of the drivers are in-phase, used for side or rear.

Dipoles- front facing is in-phase, rear facing is out of phase. Used for sides only. Bipoles or Monopoles can be used for rears.

Tripoles- identical to dipoles, except have a front firing woofer that's in phase. Can be used for sides and rears.

There is no set speaker arrangement (Dolby recommend all identical speakers) but IMO this doesn't work well in all rooms. Especially if the sofa is close to the side and/or rear speakers. Localisation is quite possible with monopoles when they're close to the LP.

Bi/Di/Tri spread the sound out differently. Bi's create wide spread out sound, but are still locatable. Dipoles creat null (the speaker itself) the phase cancellation causes the speaker to disappear, so you can't actually HEAR the sound coming from the actual speaker, instead it blends the side wall with subtle surround sound... but it's still discrete and "there", but adds to the whole soundfield. Tripoles add
one further to the dipoles by creating some direct-sounding effects (useful for multi-channel music)

I prefer dipoles for sides, with monopoles or bipoles for rears. I haven't considered tripoles because they're too expensive.. cheapest ones I've seen are the £1300 M&K 150. Maybe if tripoles were a bit affordable I'll use tripoles for sides & rears.