Speaker Placement Problems (1 Viewer)

[Harley]

My room is 13 ft. wide 30 ft. long, on one wall it has an opening of 12 ft. which spills out into the rest of the house, I want to set up a 6.1/7.1 arrangement I'm not able to place dipoles at my sides,because that is where the 12 ft. hole is. I can place speakers on the wall for the 5.1 part, about nine ft. behind the main seating area to the side walls(six ft. straight back or total of nine ft.) should I use direct firing speakers aimed directly at central seating area or would dipoles work this far back? Keep in mind that the dipoles forward firing side would be aimed towards an imaginary wall(12 ft. opening). From the location of the sides I am left with about ten 1/2 feet to the back wall for the rear's should I use dipoles or direct fires there, also I could place the rears on the vaulted ceiling.
My speaker budget not counting subs is $2000-$4000 I am going with Denon 3802 any recommendations for speakers welcomed. My Wife likes the looks of B&W CM 4 & 2 speakers, she is not concerned with the sound!, and I made the mistake of leaving all the brochures I've been accumulating from speaker manufactures laying out, I've not been able to audition the B&W's, are they worth considering since they already have the built in Wife Approval Factor?
[Edited last by Harley on August 13, 2001 at 07:13 PM]

 

[Neil Joseph]

Using dipoles that far back would be defeating the purpose of what dipoles are designed for (dispersing the image) and thus, you would be better using a pair of direct radiators, or even two pairs of direct radiators if your setup can manage that. If you are able to, draw a quick diagram of your room and put it up on the net.
orangeman
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[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Harley,
First, Welcome to the Forum!
I’ll second Neil’s suggestion to use direct radiator-type speakers. Di-and bi-polar speakers are not designed for use where there is no back (or front) wall. The speakers get their ambience characteristics by bouncing sound off the walls.
Personally I prefer direct-radiating speakers for Dolby Digital, which often requires sound localized to specific rear speakers, and in my opinion direct radiators work best for this. We have our surround speakers to the rear of the seating area, aimed forward. They are about 9 feet from the seating area, and the distance allows time for adequate dispersion. This gives the best of both worlds, as far as I’m concerned: A diffused sound that easily localizes when needed.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
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