Bi/Di-poles or BS for rear surrounds in 5.1 setup?

nSinghal

Active Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2012
Messages
356
Points
43
Location
Delhi
Which ones are better? Or more specifically, which ones will be better in my room. Here's the details...

Requirement: Rear surrounds for a 5.1 to be placed at the back wall in an L shaped room.
Room Size: 25'x16' (excluding the L portion)
Listening positions:
  • A) Bed: About 23 feet away from the screen and 1.5 feet away from the rear wall. Don't need (or expect) the most accurate imaging here but some sense of 5.1 surround sound will be nice to have.
  • B) Recliners: About 16' away from screen and 8' away from rear wall. Plan to watch all blu rays and most 5.1 HD DTH content here. This is where I want the surround effect to be as good as possible.
Fronts, Center speakers: Not final yet but currently inclined towards MS aviano 6 or 8 with aviano 5 Center. Or something similar-ish like Rti A5 or Q500.
Avr: Marantz 6006 (already bought).
Placement for rears: about 4 feet away from the right corner in the pic below (ie, 1 feet away from the bathroom door at the corner) for right surround and left surround about 10 feet further (ie, 11 feet away from the bath door).
Pics...
Back wall...

Room Floor plan...
imagexqah.jpg

My options are either to get BS like aviano 1 or 2 for rears (overkill for just surrounds IMO) which will be a costlier option and probably won't do as well with surround imaging. Or get something like wharfedale 10.dfs or Polk Fxi A4 (not too worried about timbre matching here) which "supposedly" are better as rears/surrounds. Also, these are a bit easier to place (no space needed between the speaker, walls) and much higher WAF (as they are lees deep and are mostly invisible/hardly noticable with all black grill on all visible sides).

So I'm already inclined towards Bipoles (especially the polk ones). If experienced FMs can confirm that they'll work better (or even as well) as the BS for use as rear surrounds (that too for mostly moves as for music I think I'll use Fronts only, instead of the 5.1 setup), I'll get these only. If BS is recommended then its another pita I need to figure out the least worse solution for. :sad:

Thanks for reading. Please try an help if you can here :)
 
Last edited:
Btw, there's one detail I forgot to mention last night. There is a wooden pelmet (6" deep x 6"wide) running on the two sides and top of the rear wall (see pic for a better idea). Whatever surrounds I get will be placed inside this pelmet and will be as close to it as I can possibly make it. Will that change anything in favor of bi-poles?

imagewpvd.jpg
 
Even I would suggest you to look at some Bookshelf speakers for the surrounds. You can go in for some front ported BS speaker, so that you can place them close to the wall. Dipole / Bipole speakers work in certain conditions but direct radiating speakers are better in most cases for the surrounds.

In a 5.1 setup the best place for the surround speakers is at the sides and not the rear. Looking at your floor plan the best place for the surrounds would be on the side walls, you can place them between the rear wall and the sofa.

67432710.jpg


Since you have two listening spots in the room, it would be better to install the speaker with a wall bracket that allows you to turn the speaker towards the bed or the sofa. Or you can place the speakers on a rack and you can turn the speakers towards the listening positioning.

But then if you have some problem installing the speaker on the side walls or if your very particular about Dipole / Bipole surrounds then you can use them.
 
Which ones are better? Or more specifically, which ones will be better in my room. Here's the details...

Requirement: Rear surrounds for a 5.1 to be placed at the back wall in an L shaped room.
Room Size: 25'x16' (excluding the L portion)
Listening positions:
  • A) Bed: About 23 feet away from the screen and 1.5 feet away from the rear wall. Don't need (or expect) the most accurate imaging here but some sense of 5.1 surround sound will be nice to have.
  • B) Recliners: About 16' away from screen and 8' away from rear wall. Plan to watch all blu rays and most 5.1 HD DTH content here. This is where I want the surround effect to be as good as possible.
Fronts, Center speakers: Not final yet but currently inclined towards MS aviano 6 or 8 with aviano 5 Center. Or something similar-ish like Rti A5 or Q500.
Avr: Marantz 6006 (already bought).
Placement for rears: about 4 feet away from the right corner in the pic below (ie, 1 feet away from the bathroom door at the corner) for right surround and left surround about 10 feet further (ie, 11 feet away from the bath door).
Pics...
Back wall...

Room Floor plan...
imagexqah.jpg

My options are either to get BS like aviano 1 or 2 for rears (overkill for just surrounds IMO) which will be a costlier option and probably won't do as well with surround imaging. Or get something like wharfedale 10.dfs or Polk Fxi A4 (not too worried about timbre matching here) which "supposedly" are better as rears/surrounds. Also, these are a bit easier to place (no space needed between the speaker, walls) and much higher WAF (as they are lees deep and are mostly invisible/hardly noticable with all black grill on all visible sides).

So I'm already inclined towards Bipoles (especially the polk ones). If experienced FMs can confirm that they'll work better (or even as well) as the BS for use as rear surrounds (that too for mostly moves as for music I think I'll use Fronts only, instead of the 5.1 setup), I'll get these only. If BS is recommended then its another pita I need to figure out the least worse solution for. :sad:

Thanks for reading. Please try an help if you can here :)

L-Shaped rooms are most challenging acoustically.

If you intend to place the rears on the rear wall, you should go for BS or wall-mountable speakers.

If you intend to place them on the side walls, go for dipole speakers.
 
Thanks everyone. Bookshelves it is then :)

@Nishanth: Dont have provision for speaker cables where you suggested. That would have been the best place for surrounds in my room I think. Ripping apart the walls is not really an option anymore at this point of time. Wish I had thought of placement there earlier. Anyways, thanks for the suggestion :)
 
Last edited:
Get the Award Winning Diamond 12.3 Floorstanding Speakers on Special Offer
Back
Top