Monopoles vs dipole/ bipolar rear surrounds?

Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
My shelf is pretty close to wall I’d have to add an extra board into it for monopoles.
m

I have Bookshelves of the same brand too .


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S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
I would just stick with what you have. A monopole may be just as compromised in sound, but in a different way, when you place it so close to a wall. That surround speaker was at least make to go up against a wall.
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
I would just stick with what you have. A monopole may be just as compromised in sound, but in a different way, when you place it so close to a wall. That surround speaker was at least make to go up against a wall.
Yeah good idea and I think these are more designed for a back wall judging by them sealed and no ports . The bookshelves had rear ports .


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
If you don't put them RIGHT up against the wall, they are usually fine also. You only need a few inches.
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
If you don't put them RIGHT up against the wall, they are usually fine also. You only need a few inches.
Maybe I’ll try them again sometime all there Doing is collect dust while I use these clamshell looking surrounds .
The bookshelves are a higher build quality .

Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Seems like I remember the port diameter times 1.5.
Yes, but some speakers are not so impacted by it. I've had some rear ported speakers that did not care if they were very close to the wall. It depends on the tuning and how deep they extend, so while that is a good rule of thumb, it does not always apply 100%. Also, you can do things like just put some damping material on the wall directly behind or angle them slightly and it can work as well.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Yes, but some speakers are not so impacted by it. I've had some rear ported speakers that did not care if they were very close to the wall. It depends on the tuning and how deep they extend, so while that is a good rule of thumb, it does not always apply 100%. Also, you can do things like just put some damping material on the wall directly behind or angle them slightly and it can work as well.
Totally agree on all counts. That loose rule of thumb just happened into my head.
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Totally agree on all counts. That loose rule of thumb just happened into my head.
Klipsch icon bookshelves, I’ll get model later.
Final model before Best Buy replaced them with faux klipsch references.
Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
So no one else has any idea or has struggled between this choice or speaker types for back surrounds ???



Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
So no one else has any idea or has struggled between this choice or speaker types for back surrounds ???



Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
Nope. For me, no choice. Bipoles should go extinct. Unless it’s a TINY room.
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Nope. For me, no choice. Bipoles should go extinct. Unless it’s a TINY room.
Is 12’x 11’x 10 a small room ? Haha yeah I’ll go back to bookshelves and see how they sound .
Who created dipoles , bipoles first ??
Mirage made a lot of Omnisat and unusual radiating speakers
??? Does same company still own mirage ?

Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
Last edited:
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Totally agree on all counts. That loose rule of thumb just happened into my head.
My bedroom is so small but do larger back surrounds add more depth or bipolar / dipoles for wider dispersed sound ??
Monopolies for more bass ?


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
Nope. For me, no choice. Bipoles should go extinct. Unless it’s a TINY room.
Totally agree bro got shafted with these bipole speakers in my theater room for now and atmos and other audio sources sound so much better with monopolies let me tell ya.

Can't wait to get these f@$!#: things off my wall.
 
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William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
My bedroom is so small but do larger back surrounds add more depth or bipolar / dipoles for wider dispersed sound ??
Monopolies for more bass ?


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
Bass can be better or worse on either. Just depends. Yeah, bi/dipoles will sound more diffused and less focused. That’s pretty much why I don’t like them. Monopoles however when too close can hotspot and be distracting. So in a small bedroom bipoles can be an ok choice.
FWIW surrounds and back/rear surrounds are two different things. Rear surrounds are used in a 7.1 system.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Totally agree bro got shafted with these bipole speakers in my theater room for now and atmos and other audio sources sound so much better with monopolies let me tell ya.

Can't wait to get these f@$!#: things off my wall.
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
My 6' tall Carver ribbon speakers are natural dipoles. They need 3+ feet from the front wall to avoid early cancellation, but are awesome after that. They image precisely. The back wave is for three dimensional presence in space (i.e. Real sounds tend to be omnidirectional dipoles in nature so that's what your brain is used to hearing in the real world). That's also why most box speakers sound like "stereo" and not real life, IMO. But the need breathing room and face front/back not the null to the side thing made for old style surround use. Regular speakers also have a back wave, but it's normally absorbed internally with the insulation and nowhere for the sound to go inside the box.

Bipoles are man-made creations designed to be in phase rather than out of phase relative to each other. The idea is to get that 3D presence effect without the need to keep the speakers well away from the walls. Again, that is front/back use, not facing the null area of the speaker for surround use.

As surrounds, bipoles image better than dipoles (no dead null effect to the sides), but faced from the sides, they tend to be more nebulous than direct facing monopoles. However, the angled variety on the side walls placed between rows gives essentially an array of two sets of monopoles, one facing each row so each seating area row gets even sound without having to buy two sets of side surrounds.

I use three set of bed level side surrounds in my three row home theater (front wide, side, side #2 and then rears in the back plus regular fronts), but only three sets of overheads front, middle and rear) so I use angled bipoles in the middle in the Auro-3D location so the front and rear rows get even middle coverage (faces both rows that way). I don't hear any imaging issues blending with front/rear heights.
 

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