Dipole vs Bipole in large room

CJSoundCheck

Hello everyone! I have a speaker placement and config question. I have a Marantz SR7007 receiver and a pair of Polk LSIf/x speakers as rears in a 5.1 configuration. The surround isn't as immersive as I'd like it to be. So I have a couch that is right up against the back wall of my room, with the LSI's mounted about 2 feet up above the money seat and about 5 feet away but they are flat to the wall so only one speaker side is pointed to my ears. I have them in bipole mode right now with the connector clip still on as there is only one feed from the receiver. On the other side of the left speaker there is a glass window and on the other side of the right speaker is a wall about 10 feet away but also an open space where my stairs go up to the next floor.

My two questions are:
1) Will this speaker placement work?
2) Should I be in bipole or dipole mode?
3) Should I run a second set of wires to the unclipped posts in bipole mode and connect them to the Surround Back ports (currently connected to Surround ports per Marantz recommendation)?

Thanks in advance for any help!

C

kuntasensei

5.1 doesn't have rears. Surrounds should be mounted to the sides (which I'm assuming is what you meant).

1. Whether it will work is a question for you, really, as you're the only one who can hear them. Does it sound good? If so, you're good.

2. Again, up to you. It's easy enough to switch between the two and see how you like each. The purpose of dipoles is that each side fires out of phase so there's a cancellation when you're directly in-line with them. That way, you don't hear the direct sound from them, but the reflected sound from each side of them, making them sound like several speakers (the way a movie theater is configured). Bipole mode fires both sides in phase for a more 180 degree dispersion with no null in-line with the speaker. If your couch is right up against a back wall, it probably would have been better to use direct radiators instead of bipole/dipole, but as I said... switch between the two modes, play some material with surround info, and judge for yourself.

3. The other set of posts aren't for a separate input - they're for bi-wiring or bi-amping. Hooking two sets of wires to the speakers doesn't give you 7.1, and I can't imagine that hooking both surround and surround back outputs to your LSiF/X would be good for them (or your AVR).

CJSoundCheck

Makes sense to me. The speakers were an artifact from another surround setup I had that was 7.1. I chose to use them as the surrounds as they gave me more options then my original Infinity bookshelf speakers. I just played around with them a bit and the bipole mode sounds great after a little tweaking with the amp.

Thanks for the quick feedback and appreciate the help!

C