What type of speaker for rears in a 7.1? (1 Viewer)

[Matt Odegard]

I am torn between getting 4 Studio 20's for the whole surround(2 sides, 2 rears). Or get the Studio 20's for the sides and the Studio ADP's for the rear surrounds. Which way should I go? I will listen to some DVD-A, how much I'm not sure. My music to HT ratio is 35/65%.

BTW, When listening to DVD-A. Which speakers will be used in the the surround? The sides or the rear speakers?

 

[Tyler DJW]

I'm in the very same position as I'm considering upgrading from monitor series to studio. I've currently got ADPs but I'm getting into DVDA and I'm not sure which is better. I think it depends largely on the configuration of the room.

My room isn't very large which means that across my single sofa you're sitting pretty close to the surrounds. In this scenario the ADPs are hard to beat. Even if you're 3 feet away it sounds just as balanced as if you're 10 feet away and directly between the surrounds. It really just optimizes the space.

That being said, you do lose something with them too. You lose some of the impact and detail that you would from a direct radiator. I think my absolute preference is to use the ADPs but have the just a little behind your seating position, so that you get a little of the direct sound... it's sort of the best of both worlds.

Try them BOTH in your own room if at all possible. It's the best way to judge if you ask me. Oh yeah, DVDA will use the SIDE surrounds and not the back, as would a normal 5.1 setup. Let us know what you decide and how you like them... I'd like to hear others' perspectives.

 

[Matt Odegard]

Well, if DVD-A use's the sides I'm gonna go with the ADP's for the back. My couch is right up against the back wall and I can't pull it out. That was why I was thinking of going with ADP's on the back and 20's for the side. Others wise I would have to point the 20's pretty much down to the floor so I could hear them. I think I'll go the 20's and ADP's route, since I won't loose sound on the DVD-A and the movie's will have the best of both worlds.

Thanks Matt

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Man, I wish someone somewhere would do a sort of "FAQ" for 7.1 setups:

- THX EX/DTS ES
- THX Ultra2
- Logic 7

Personally, I'm going with 4 identical direct radiator bookshelf speakers for the surrounds & rears. Guarenteed timber matching for one. Two, is that, have you ever seen a freq response trace for dipoles? Terrible. High freqs all messed up because of the purposefully created dispersion pattern. As far as localization, I understand that the simple fact of going from just 2 surrounds, to 4 surrounds plus rears, makes *each* speaker less localizable.

My impression is (because I have been yelled at by people who disagree with this ), is that dipoles were an excellent recommendation for DPL. Because, in the DPL days, the rears were *not* discrete but mono channels un-matrixed from the front L + R channels, and were almost always more ambient in nature in terms of the soundtrack.

But as things become more discrete DPL -> DD/DTS -> DD EX/DTS-ES -> THX Ultra2/Logic 7, you actually do want *slightly* more localization, which gives you better imaging for specific sound effects in the back of the room. So, the hardware has changed, but also how movie producers and directors use the soundtrack.

Movie theaters and homes are obviously way different, but they do use monopoles in theaters. From 5.1 to 7.1, imo, becomes more like a movie theater speaker setup, and less like a home theater setup attempting to mimic movie theater sound, if that makes sense.

The *best* way is to try each way yourself. But sometimes that's not easy.

I have seen this for a Logic 7 recommendation, if you do want to use dipoles, usually they are better for the sides, but direct radiators for the rears.