Bi-polar speakers

Following on from my system de-integration of stereo and AV gear, I find myself without a pair of rear speakers.

The view I've held previously has been that using a pair of stereo speakers for the rear was the optimum route. But that's partly because I thought they would be better for multi-channel music. Having been completely underwhelmed by EVERY multi-channel music dem I've heard, I think that my rear speakers will now only be used for movies/tv.

Assuming the above to be the case, I'm starting to get the impression that bi-polars might be a better option for my rears, as I understand they can create a more "immersive and surrounding" set of effects that standard stereo speakers.

Can anyone who's used or owns a pair of bi-polars please comment on:
- how well they work
- whether you'd prefer to be using std stereo speakers instead
- any views on preferences in brand/model

Thanks

 

i use Mordaunt Short 903 bipoles- i have to say if i'd known that i'd been into SACD and DVD-A as much as I am, i would have got a pair of reasonable small normal uni-directional speakers instead of bipoles... but these babies certainly disperse sound out very effectively which really works well with movies and atmospheric soundtracks but sound a little 'false' shall we say with music...
dipoles are supposed to work better- Mordaunt Short 506 dipoles are £480- the drive units are out of phase (whereas in bipoles they're in phase) and because they're out of phase are supposed to i dunno...blend in better or something...??

 

I've got a pair of dipoles as rear surrounds on my a/v set-up, KEF TDM-34DS, they're up for sale for £340, BTW

http://www.kef.com/history/1990_2/thx/tdm_34DS.htm

For movies they are excellent and produce a very immersive and seamless wrap-around effect for the atmospheric stuff, but for music and concert music DVDs I'm in agreement with Rory and find that they are too diffuse and vague imaging-wise for this kind of stuff - would probably have bought conventional speakers for the rears in the first place.

 

i use a pair of mission 78ds's as rears and must say that with movies they are significanly better at creating a rear sound field than conventional speakers. as for multi channel music, well to be honest i haven;t tried it yet but mtv via pro logic 1 sounds ok, not great but ok. i suspect that they wouldn;t be as good as conventional speakers for this though.
if you are going to go the multi channel music route but want to play movies too you might think about this.. get a normal pair of speakers for rear duties but if possible point them into the rear corners of the room or at an angle towards the side wall awayu from you for movies. this will give you some of the dispersion characteristics for a di/ bi-pole speaker but you can always turn them round when you want to listen to a multichannel bit of music.
cheers


julian

 

Amongst the lower priced gear (cos I'd prefer to spend real cash on the stereo and not the AV system), say upto £200, what recommendations are there?
I see that I can buy some Mission 7 bi-poles, or for more money some 5 di-poles. I'm not sure about other makes.

Thoughts?

 

Mordaunt Short 903 bipoles are £180, or £167 from www.bennettsonline.co.uk . they do stick out further than the Missions, but disperse the sound better as a result....

incidentally, we also have the older Mission M7ds' in Silver or Black for £117.54

 

The guy I bought my Monitor Audio GR10's from had a pair of Monitor Audio Silver FXi's for sale at £175 (r.r.p. = £400) - these can be run as dipoles or bipoles depending upon how you wire them. I would imagine he'd take £150 for them. Give me a shout if you want his details (he's based in Bracknell).

I use the same KEF THX dipoles as Henry is selling - they are quite large but sound superb - very diffuse sound. I had bipoles previously - they are more directional but still spread the sound around compared to a monopole speaker.

One really cheap option are the Elatx HT-2 bipoles - they used to cost £150 and got very good reviews from the likes of What HiFi at that price. Very compact and compare well with the likes of the Mission 7DS/77DS etc. The downside is that if you want a pair you'd have to venture into Richer Sounds - the upside is that whilst they used to sell them for £150 and then brought them down to £80, they now do them at a ridiculous £50! Don't be put off by this price - they are decent £150 bipoles.

Matt.

 

I think richers do the Mission 7Ds for under a ton.

 

I had Mission M7DS bipole rear speakers, since replaced with M&K Tripoles and have also been underwhelmed with multi channel music but I think that it is more to do with poor mastering than the speaker setup. I prefer to be in the audience rather than in the middle of the stage.

The bipole speakers are best where there are space restrictions, normally with the listening position hard against the rear wall. I have my rears mounted on the side wall in line with the settee.