A Guide to Bipolar, Dipolar, & Direct-Radiating Monopole Surround Speakers (PART I)

[Yungheat]

I currently have a 5.1 setup and I have Polk monitor 30,s as my surrounds would I benefit in sound quality getting a bipolar,monopole or dipolar speakers I've been reading up on all 3 but I'm still a little confused

[Dwayne]

Originally Posted by Yungheat

I currently have a 5.1 setup and I have Polk monitor 30,s as my surrounds would I benefit in sound quality getting a bipolar,monopole or dipolar speakers I've been reading up on all 3 but I'm still a little confused

I'm certainly no expert on these type's of surround's, but year's ago I purchased a pair of Bose 901 speaker's, which were set up almost exactly as these speaker's you are speaking of. The Bose 901 had an array of smaller driver's, each slightly angled in certain direction's (Bose called them direct reflecting) which too me sounded okay if you were very close to them. I used them as my front/main's at that time, but they just did not produce the sound that normal speaker's did. I only know one person who used these type of speaker's as surround's (Def-Tech's), and they sounded good, if sitting in back near them. When setting up close to near the front/main's, I could hardly hear the surround activity. If your room is not very big and rear space is limited, then I can understand wanting these type's of speaker's. Many people love these model's and I'm certainly not trying to take anything away from them at all. Personally I have room so I use tower speaker's as my surround's, so if you can, I suggest with going for the standard speaker design, and go as big as your space will allow. That's just me .

[FIshda]

this is perfect, well done good sir.

so ill be moving in a new place in a few months and planning on upgrading to atmos. would bipole speakers(as surround) placed at the back wall be suitable for atmos setup?

to consider
back wall is the only option if im going to use bipole speakers.

LP would be 4ft away from the back wall.

thanks in advance.