Dipole rear speakers ???

Hi Mike, I chose dipoles for my rears. Wider soundstage on each side vs more pinpoint with point source. I suppose some soundtracks might sound better one way or the other. Last night we watched Independence Day, good timing, and I had no problem discerning jets/spacecraft flying from front left to back right in a continuous manner and I wasn't even in the sweetspot. The farther your fronts are from your rears might make dipoles the better choice. Think of a stereo pair of speakers too far apart where you have a hole in the middle of your soundstage. In a home theater, you would want the front left and rear left,(and FR/RR), to be as seemless as possible as well as FR/RL and FL/RR. It would be hard for 2 point sources to fill in a distance of say 15' and the diagonal would be even greater. BUT taste is more important than math. Hope you find what you're looking for.

"what are the advantage of dipole surround speakers ?"

Dipoles offer a more defuse soundfield...this could be usefull if the rear speakers must be placed near the listening area so as not to draw attention.

They are usually placed at the sides of the room and above the listeners ear level by some degree of feet...you deside what works best.

Chad has a good idea with the switch...you can try both that way.

Dave

thanks !!!

mike

My first thought on your seating possition (2' from back) and monopoles mounted on that same back wall, is that you're compounding your "boomy", "peaky", "low fidelity" bass problems!!! This won't sound very good. Infact, you can forget any audiophile refined applications here, or even good "midfi" sound from this setup! You and your speakers are then located in the most bass heavy/peaky spot in the room!...not the way to do it.
I would go for dipoles on that back wall if you must, because they'd likely be much better balanced to be on the back wall vs. monopoles(which more often than not are better balanced out in the room more!) (if you doubt, just measure and find out with test tones/sound meter).
Also, dipoles are more diffuse sounding mostly, which lends to a much less specific and distracting experience back there. You get lost in the movie much better, and they're less intrussive.
If you gotta go monopoles, they're trickier to make dissapear if you ask me.
Good luck

I think dipoles sound good as long as they are up above you and off to the side as opposed as behind you, since they are side firing, you wouldn't want them side by side as there could be some frequency cancellation. I agree with the guy who said to use them if there is a significant distance between the front and rear speaker areas.