Dipoles,Bipoles and Monopoles..

[Goat1]

I just updated my profile.. I'm going to add pics when I figure it out.. I sold my brother my paradigm adp 170 dipoles,but they are 12 yrs old.

 

[Cos]

It is really personal choice. I enjoy listening to music in both 2 Channel and multi-channel modes. I especially like live tracks in multichannel mode. My preference is to have dipole because I don't like the sound coming directly at me from my rear speakers. Now if I was running 5.1 I could see not utilizing dipoles, but I have had both and prefer them.

 

[Goat1]

Nice setup Cos! Do you have any pics of your system? Those ADP 590's aren't cheap..I was looking at them online last night,they are like $500 ea.. I think dipoles are made more for 5.1 than 7.1. Why would you not utilize them in 5.1?

 

[fuzz092888]

I love my 7 channel setup. Right now this is what I have as my rear surrounds.

 

[Goat1]

What are they? Home brew? Are those Phil harmonics to the left?

 

[fuzz092888]

They're a tower surround design from Source Technology. Top firing tweeter, midranges at 90 degrees from each other, and a side firing woofer.

Yes, those are Philharmonic 3's to the left and Source Technology 8.3's behind. I also have Source Technology RC4's as my surrounds.

 

[Goat1]

Very nice. Wish I could hear them.

 

[fuzz092888]

They're great speakers and to my hears, they made a huge difference in my HT experience. Now I'm not necessarily lobbying for these types of configurations, but for high quality surrounds after everything else is taken care of.

 

[Speedskater]

Over at 'Widescreen Review' magazine, Gary Reber writes some great articles on Surround Sound loudspeakers. My take is that the early encoded logic systems only did a defuse(sp) field, so dipoles were a good choice. Now with discrete surround, monopoles might be a better choice.

 

[Steve81]

It's my understanding that dipoles are to be used as sides and not rears. The speaker is built to have the sound bounce off the walls giving a fuller, theater type experience. So if you use dipoles as sides, you wouldn't need to do 7.1. 5.1 with dipoles would give the same affect.

Indeed; in my room, I can't really pin down where the sound is coming from; my dipole surrounds create the illusion of a wall of sound. They're also particularly difficult to localize even when you're sitting close to one of the speakers. I can't say the same for my old tower surrounds.

With respect to whether 7.1 would be worthwhile, I do have one suggestion: some movies have a THX setup/calibration included with them that could be of use here (I know my older Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl DVD does at least ). You can actually run noise through each position, including the phantom rear channels to see how well the sound is matrixed.

 

[psbfan9]

I'm not sure what your budget is for surrounds, but I had forgotten about the new SVS surrounds until watching Marshall's excellent video review.

$599.00 each.

The SVS surrounds offer an all in one option. In one cabinet you get the option for bipole/dipole, and duet.

For the ultimate in flexibility, the Ultra Surround can operate in three different surround sound modes:

• Bipole - both sets of drivers in phase.
• Dipole mode - both sets of drivers out of phase.
  
• Duet mode - each set of drivers receives a discrete signal.

You can toggle between 5.1 and 7.1 with one pair of speakers.

Duet mode creates two separate speakers within one cabinet, allowing true 7-channel surround sound with just two surround speakers instead of the more common four. Duet mode is very useful for enthusiasts who want to experience discrete 7 channel surround sound, but who lack the space for a separate set of rear surround speakers.

Ultra Surround - SVS

 

[Goat1]

I looked into those also,they are kind of spendy tho. Otherwise,I'd be all over them..

 

[afterlife2]

Those SVS are beautiful. I agree bit expensive, But I'm sure they sound great.

 

[Goat1]

I don't need surrounds right now,I have the def tech bipoles,but the SVS is very appealing. I like all the options they have on them. Like you said,best of all worlds. I really don't think voice matching on surrounds is a non issue.

 

[afterlife2]

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