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Are Bipoles good surrounds or overrated??


robc1976

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Are Bipoles good surrounds or overrated?I have been reading for the past 3 hours about the debate against bipole/dipole/monople....wich are better in your opinion. I just bought a pair of these and if they are inferior I will take them back....don't want a week spot in my system. My system is used for movies and gaming primarly.

Bipoles I got are RS-52II

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Are Bipoles good surrounds or overrated?

I believe they are ideal for surrounds. They provide a much more dispersed, non-directional sound for effects (bullets, ricochet, flyby etc).

Did you have them mounted on the side walls, a few degrees behind your listening position and 2 - 3 feet above your head?

THX Placement Recommendations for 5.1

5-1-speaker-setup-400x300.jpg

THX Recommendations for 7.1

dolby-truehd-dts-hd-speaker-setup-400x30

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Lot of people where saying that with the DTS discrete channels that bipoles are inferior. I listen to a LOT of DTS material. I do like hearing sounds on the left and right with a lot of content...bullets, machine guns ECT

It's a matter of opinion. There is no wrong way to do it but I'll lay out my experiences:

My 5.1 system in the living room uses bookshelves (monopole). Any rear or side content is directly radiated from the speaker to the listener. If a jet flies over head or a machine gun is fired from the rear, the sound comes unarguably from my two speakers and can be immediately located to both speakers. If a gun is fired from the left or a plate crashes in the movies "kitchen" off screen, that gun and the bullets falling to the ground, or that plate are most definately now located in the exact same place as my left channel speaker. There is no mistaking it and I often turn my head to look at the speaker as I feel like it occurred right next to me. It's a cool experience.

My 5.1 theater in the basement uses the RF-52 IIs. I have no rear channels hooked up. Now when a jet flies overhead or a gun is fired from the rear, it actually feels like the action is behind me. The sound fills the room and slowly envelopes from the rear to over my head and finally onto the screen. This IS a theater experience and it cannot be substitued by a bookshelf. When a machine gun or plate crashes stage left rear, that sound is still left rear, but it is more general, within 1-10 foot of my speaker depending on the type of sound it is. For instance, the machine gun fired from the left feels like it's being fired right next to me, but the "tinging" of the cartriges hitting the ground sounds as if it is occurring close to the speaker. This is a more enveloped 3-dimensional sound. I have no need to look at the speaker when the dish crashes because all of the sound is completely enveloped in the movie, which I feel like I am sitting in the middle of.

Now, as you add more discrete channel speakers, the locality becomes less noticeable as multiple channels are interpreting the signal to varying degrees. You may not have as much locality based on a 9 channel system. If I were you, I would move my front wides to the rear and keep the RS-52s. The RS-52s are grand speakers that basically act as two discrete channels. They have the "Wide-dispersion Technology" which creates the sound enveolope of the theater, but accurately reproduce the high pitch sound in a very localized way.

Hope that helps.

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Are Bipoles good surrounds or overrated?

I believe they are ideal for surrounds. They provide a much more dispersed, non-directional sound for effects (bullets, ricochet, flyby etc).

Did you have them mounted on the side walls, a few degrees behind your listening position and 2 - 3 feet above your head?

THX Placement Recommendations for 5.1

5-1-speaker-setup-400x300.jpg

THX Recommendations for 7.1

dolby-truehd-dts-hd-speaker-setup-400x30

I have them about 3.5 Ft behind my listening position. I have them on a ball mount swiveled towards the listening position not flat on the wall. I am think that maybe they need to be flat on the wall to dispense the sound better. I did notice that with the one side towards my listening position the sound will not bounce of my front wall and hit MLP.

Here is how they are positioned:

Figure 1: (Current placement)

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Posted Image

Position of RS-52II speakers:

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Figure 2: (Alternate placement)

Posted Image

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When bipoles first came out alot of people said they didn't like the way they put out sound in two directions, myself especially with 5.1 I did like it. I thought it did a better job of giving a more surround feeling to the rear. Don't have any now but it's because we switched all the speakers.

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You should consider a 5 channel amp for the 4 82s and the rc

I am actually reseaching this...never have I used a external amp. Am I getting this correct:

1. You would basically use the reciever for the signal? Basically my fronts,wides,center would be hooked up via pre-out with audio cables to the external amp and my heights & surrounds would still be plugged into the reciever? Basically the reciever is just used for signals to those channels?

2. This may be a dumb question...Will Audyssey still work with the external amp and will I still get the decoding (DTS,Dolby Ect)? How would the Audyssey settings be transferred to the other amp

3. I was thinking 200-250 watts per channel X 5...any suggestions on amps?

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A little more power than the rc-62ii needs but overpowering good speakers is just fine. That is a great amp to buy. Nothing like getting a new amp with a warranty. I just got a upa-5 and love the build quality.

I am upgradiing to a RC64II this week. I have always set the crossovers to 80- Htz on Audyssey and set speakers to small...is this waht you guys suggest?
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