I'm getting ready to replace my two (old and cheap) direct firing 5.1 rear speakers, and adding additional ones to support a 6.1 or 7.1 array.

I'd really appreciate some advice about appropriate types of surround speakers: direct fire, dipole, bipole, or a combination.

My living room is a rectangle 21 feet deep, 15 feet wide and 8'4" high. The listener's position is five feet in front of the rear wall and about 14 feet back from the fronts of the main and center speakers. There is an eight foot wide window on the rear wall, and the open entrance (four and a half feet wide) is in the right wall, starting six and a half feet from the front corner and ending ten feet from the back corner.

Before I got confused... :) I was thinking of using dipoles for the surrounds, placed to the left and right of the listener and about six feet above the floor. Then I planned to use bipoles for the effect speakers, either at the edges of the window (roughly 33 inches from each corner) and six feet high for a 7.1 array, or a single bipole centered on the window sill (WAF) for a 6.1 rig.

However, since the listener is so far in front of the rear wall I began wondering if the effect speakers should be direct firing instead of bipole. Then I began wondering if it's okay to mix and match any of the speaker types, and finally I thoroughly baffled myself and decided to ask for your help!

Any advice and recommendations on rear speaker type and placement will be gratefully accepted.

Regards,
-Bruce ;-)

This message was edited by Bruce Burson on 11/02/01 06:40.57.

Bob,

There is no set in stone rules per se. Ultimately the
system that best sounds good to you is the rule of
thumb not what Dolby Labs, Tom Holman or Digital Theater Systems
tells us!

That being said Dolby Digital and Dolby DTS both use
direct radiating speakers aimed at the listener. In a
smaller home theater is may be hard to duplicate enough
"diffuse" to use direct radiating and therfore some people
choose to use Di's and Bi's to throw sound off in more
than one direction from one localized area.

Your room is a very nice size and your seating sounds
ideal to me. I would say you could go with direct radiating
speakers (Bookshelfs or Satelites) mount them high on
the walls pan them down to an angle where the sound will
radiate directly to the listeners ears. Then test it out
and see if you like that setup. Go with some sort of
speaker mount that will allow you to Tilt And Swivel
this way you can still set even the direct radiating
bookshelf to fire towards a reflecting surface (wall)
and this will allow you to experiment.

I use dipoles for the surrounds (Paridigm studio reference ADP's) mounted on the side walls about 6 1/2 feet up just a few feet rear of the seating which provides a good dipersion of the ambience sound. I have direct radiating speakers for the two rear channel about ear levelin a 7.1 setup. I am happy with this setup and it sounds great.

Most likely the dipoles would be perfect for side surrounds. Also, you may like direct-radiating for rear surrounds. Then you have the option (if your receiver allows it) to use the sides for 5.1 HT surround, all of them for 7.1 surround, and the backs for 5.1 music surround. Many swear by direct radiating for surround music listening. Also music surround modes are designed more for the speakers to be behind, whereas movie surround works really well with dipoles on the side.

Thanks to you who have replied so far!

Brett, I tried tilting and angling my current two direct rears yesterday and I was really astounded by the audible difference!

Spiky, I really like your idea of switching which speakers carry the signal for music listening. I listen to music more than watch movies, so a good music configuration is very important to me.

Is anyone familiar with the switchable direct / bipole / dipole S-300 surrounds from Cambridge Soundworks? The reviews I found on the Web this weekend were uniformly favorable. If they sound good, the switch sounds like an ideal way to change configurations to match the audio source...

Again, thanks!

-Bruce

Bruce,
I have the S300 surrounds with Martin Logan Aerius mains and a Cambridge center. I try the three settings on the surrounds to find the best sound for a given source. There are audible differences and it's fun to experiment. I have them centered on the listening position and about 6' up on the side walls.

Where did you find the reviews?

Martin Logans and Cambridge?

Talk about a caviar and balogna-sandwich lunch!

Larry

Tweakman:

I don't recall any specific review addresses off-hand. I went to the Google search engine and searched for ("Cambridge Soundworks" +Newton) without the parentheses, then browsed the results.

You know, I've read a number of threads that were not very favorable towards Cambridge Soundworks. But I get the impression that the Newton line may be much better quality than the earlier economy lines.

As it happens, I have a set of Creative Labs/CS DTT3500 digital speakers hooked up to my PC. Of course there is no comparison with big HT speakers, but the sound in my little library/computer room (maybe 10 feet by 12) is phenomenal. Some day I may get ambitious enough to rip out all the wires and move them into my living room just for fun, but I'm sure the little cubes would be disappointing in the big room.

My ears are more gray than golden nowadays :) maybe the Newtons would be "good enough" for me. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually heard them.

-Bruce

Caviar and baloney, heh? Check the nov/dec issue of The Perfect Vision for a rave review of the Cambridge Newton system, including the S300 surrounds.