Who uses dipoles for surrounds and who uses direct radiators

Who is using dipole for surrounds and who is using direct radiatoes

  • combination of both dipole and direct radiators used in different systems

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
I'm going to use dipole for surround speakers for the 1st time ever and this made me think of this poll?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
My first surrounds many years ago were dipole, but have used monopole ever since. Never tried combining them.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
The problem is that modern surround sound mixes have a pretty specific soundstage, and dipoles are mostly only good at projecting a diffuse sound. That wouldn't have been a problem in the early days of surround sound, but it's not the best loudspeaker for surrounds these days. What's worse is that they tend to be more expensive than regular 'monopole' speakers ('monopole' is a bit of a misnomer here).
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Monopoles all day. The ONLY consideration I make for dipoles or bipoles is very narrow rooms.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
What is the reason for considering dipoles?
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
The problem is that modern surround sound mixes have a pretty specific soundstage, and dipoles are mostly only good at projecting a diffuse sound. That wouldn't have been a problem in the early days of surround sound, but it's not the best loudspeaker for surrounds these days. What's worse is that they tend to be more expensive than regular 'monopole' speakers ('monopole' is a bit of a misnomer here).
Please refer to my post 30...

 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Please refer to my post 30...

That is a pretty awkward listening position for surround speakers. At the risk of being blunt, I would just skip surround speakers in a setup like that. It will be difficult to place them in a location where one wouldn't be too acoustically compromised given the listening position in the room. In other words, it looks to me like there is no good way to get an even sound from the surround speakers in that situation.
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
That is a pretty awkward listening position for surround speakers. At the risk of being blunt, I would just skip surround speakers in a setup like that. It will be difficult to place them in a location where one wouldn't be too acoustically compromised given the listening position in the room. In other words, it looks to me like there is no good way to get an even sound from the surround speakers in that situation.
Im still going ahead with it anyway. My bedroom isn't what I consider a critical listening environment and there is just me now anyway so I dont need to spread it across a wide area. As long as I optimize for the listening position, I'd be happy.

Maybe monopoles would work better for surrounds in my situation.

Two channel sounds surprisingly good. I'm really impressed with the dispersion characteristics and bass response from those PSB 300s.
 
Last edited:
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
My mains have dipole mids in an open-back cabinet. Otherwise, all else in my rig are wide dispersion monopoles... including surrounds and rears.
 
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