I need help choosing surrounds for my odd room. bi/di polar or mono?

Mark Syd

I have a rectangular shaped room with one of my "sides" not having a wall (it just opens up into the kitchen). My couch is right up against the back wall with no space between. So unless I "wall mount" surround speakers directly on the back wall my only other choice is speaker stands from the side (which I am fine with). So Here's my question.

Polk has a pair of di/bi polar speakers (fxi/a4). The problem is I only have 3 walls in my home theatre room. So essentially one of my rear surrounds will not have a side wall to bounce sound off of. Since the whole tick to making di/bi polar speakers work is to have reflecting walls... should I scrap the idea of getting di/bi polar speakers and just get regular non di/bi surrounds since I am missing 1 side wall? Or should it it still advantageous in my case to get di/bi's because they are better?

If you still recommend getting the fxi/a4 what is the best way to set them up since I am missing a side wall. I included a basic diagram of my set up to give an idea. I Included no rear surrounds in the pic as I don't know what to get and where to put them. any help would be appreciated. Thanks.


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| l FL l l__tv/center__l l FR |
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| lL l
| lS l
| le l
| la l
| lt l
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| l_____Couch____ |
|_________________________________<---- This side open with no side wall & no space behind couch

polkfarmboy

I think the fxi's will work best behind the couch and have them up high angled towards your listening area. pull the couch out and stick some rti4 there and you will be good to go

mdaudioguy

polkfarmboy wrote: »

I think the fxi's will work best behind the couch and have them up high angled towards your listening area. pull the couch out and stick some rti4 there and you will be good to go

You told him the FXis will work best, and then recommended the RTi??

I'd suggest just getting a pair of FXi, mounting them on the back wall and call it a day. If you mount them a few feet above your seated listening position, I don't see that there's any need to angle them. They don't need to be pointed at you.

polkfarmboy

No I meant that because he has no side wall and in the event he decides to go 7.1 then some rti4 would fit the bill nicely. Sorry for the confusion

Mark Syd

Thanks for the help guys.

polkfarmboy... I think I am just going to stick with 5.1. I know 7.1 would add that little extra but some reason I don't think pulling the wall would look good in my situation.

mdaudio guy. I think you are right. I am just debating whether I want to do that or stands. I am in a situation where it would be hard to hide wires and i don't know if want wires running up my wall. IfI put the stands close to the wall for reverberation it should do the same thing no?

mufsoman

Mark - I'm missing a side wall and back wall in my theater area. I've trialed quite a few speakers trying to find something that will work. Since you have a back wall, the Polk bi/dipoles mounted on the back wall can be a good solution. Another option are Mirage OMD5. I found these to match well with the Rti's from a tonal standpoint and do a great job of dispersing the sound like a surround speaker should due to the omni-directional design. These have worked awesome in my set up.

polkfarmboy

I had my fxi's placed about 8 inches off my back wall and the bass got really bloated and ended up having to pull them out another 10 inches to balance them. I think with wall mounting the fxi's or having them on stands will require good room eq