Cyber, I do use KLF-20s for surrounds but to be honest I did it as much for decorating esthetics as sound. There are definitely two camps on it. Here's a rough summary from memory:
The current conventional wisdom says use purpose built surrounds (e.g. bipole, dipole, WDST, etc. speakers) for surrounds. This seems to be based on the assumption that DVDs and VHS tapes are mixed with surround channels designed for diffuse (hard to localize) playback.
However, if you go with this reasoning, it means that it will be hard for the listener to localize something in the surround channel even when the recording engineer intends you to.
Curiously, you also see recommmendations to us of full range monopoles for SACD and DVD-A playback. I take this as indicating that the recording engineers may want localized sounds in the surrounds.
On the other hand, the Audio Engineering Society, Sterophile Magazine and Horned seem to think the left/center/right/left surround/right surround should all be identical full range speakers for home theater.
What do I make of it? I think we're dealing with a legacy issue of sorts caused by the early adoption of the satellite/sub model espoused by THX and others during the formative Pro-Logic era. Properly mixed 5 channel soundtracks played back through monopole speakes are capable of having localized and diffuse sounds in the surrounds through proper mixing. The real question is what do the guys doing the mix think it's going to be played back on?
My personal hope is that we'll move back toward the assumption of identical monopoles in the front and back. I say this for a few reasons:
1) I think this would be the most flexible solution.
2) Obviously timbre matching issues pretty much go
away when you use identical speakers front and rear
3) Power going to the rears seem to keep going up
and I hate to worry about hurting the usually
less efficient rear speakers.
Naturally, there are circumstances that clearly preclude the use of monople surrounds. The obvious one is the common situation where the listener's couch is backed up against the rear wall in the HT and the surrounds (for whatever reasons) have to be mounted on said rear wall.
I also think the use of the monopoles for surrounds becomes less controversial the farther they are from the listening position. My KLF-20s are about 15 feet out (and about 20 degrees back) and the effect seems reasonably good.
I hope that helps some
This message has been edited by Ephemeris on 09-02-2001 at 11:32 AM