to anybody with a 7.1 setup with F/X speakers..

aaharvel

we all know that the f/x speakers are assigned "LEFT" and "RIGHT".
has anyone inverted those in the "Back" of a 7.1 setup?

It works. To me, it gives a much more concrete rear soundstage. Try it and post feedback. I found it works in either dipole or bipole mode.

BIZILL

i would go with fxi5's if they employed the services of another 6 1/2" driver on the opposing side, the likes of which lsifx's use. anyone else wish the same? owners of them........what say you?

Holydoc

Andrew,

I have the FXi3's but I have never inverted them. My soundstage is very full so I am satisfied. If I get a chance this weekend, I will invert them to test. However I do not see that it will affect your opinion.

aaharvel

i think they sound fantastic (the back f/x's) both ways. However, I have one of those damned L-shaped rooms, so to get the most out of my system, i have to use eh... non-traditional tactics.. lol

Actually I got the idea from Atlantic Tech's website (yeah, yeah I know they sold their soul to THX and all that jazz) - but it worked... at least for my crappy room layout.

http://www.atlantictechnology.com/surround_ex.htm

Yeah, feedback would be great Holydoc. You probably have a better room layout than mine.

Nelson57

I have a question here and please pardon my igonorance, but, so that I am clear, what do you mean by inverse?

I am thinking you mean placing the speaker labled right on the left side, and the left on the right, is that correct?

Also, how many others in a 7.1 setup are using FXi 3s and/or 5s for both Surround L/R and Rear L/R. Conventional wisdom says Bipole/Dipoles should be used only on the sides with Monopoles in the rear in a 7.1 setup. I'd like to know what some of your opinions are.

aaharvel

Nelson57 wrote:

I am thinking you mean placing the speaker labled right on the left side, and the left on the right, is that correct?

Also, how many others in a 7.1 setup are using FXi 3s and/or 5s for both Surround L/R and Rear L/R. Conventional wisdom says Bipole/Dipoles should be used only on the sides with Monopoles in the rear in a 7.1 setup. I'd like to know what some of your opinions are.

Yes, that is correct. Although I've recently returned them to their normal assigned positions. Just collasped the center soundfield too much. Left to Left: Right to Right.

In a 7.1 setup with 2 Pairs of F/x's, all 4 surround speakers perform their best in Bipole mode. Imo Dipoles are terrible for surrounds when it comes to music and monopoles are terrible for surrounds with everything. Like Dipoles, monopoles are extremely picky when it comes to position- and they both have severe weakness: either in musical reproduction (dipole) or for room filling spaciousness and the precedence effect (monopoles).

BIPOLES are the way to go imo, they provide a nice give/take relationship to both the sound and room boundaries, especially if you have a 7.1 setup, when bipoles approach a 360degree soundfield.

PolkThug

I put my FXi5's woofers facing the rear. They are mounted to the sides of my listening position. (They are speakers 4/5 in a 7 speaker setup)

Holydoc

I have my four FXi3's in BIPOLE mode. My soundfield is very full and strong.

aaharvel

Holydoc wrote:

I have my four FXi3's in BIPOLE mode. My soundfield is very full and strong.

yeah at first i liked inverting the back speakers, prob. just b/c they sounded different. In the longterm however, they didn't sound better so I just put them like I had them before.

The bipole mode really makes me understand Definitive Tech's argument for speaker design now. And speaking of soundfield- I still can't hear a sonic difference between the fxi3's and fx300i's- even though the tweets are different.

Nelson57

I have my FXi5s positioned like yours Polkthug, set in Dipole, with the FXi3s place in the rear in thier proper left-right positions set at Bipole. I inverted the 5s following aaharvels suggestion, and like the sound.

I have an opportunity to get a good deal on a pair of LSiFX, how do you guys think they would work paired the FXi5s?

aaharvel

they won't match up at all. BUT surround speaker timbre matching isn't nearly as critical as the front 3- so that's up to you.

Nelson- you must have an actual back wall- so if you inverted those back FX speakers- then the side with the woofers are pointing towards the sitting area, yeah? Since my room is **** E D up (an L-shaped room) I thought inverting would be better, but it turned out to not be the case. So I switched them back. Glad you tried it, and liked it. Just goes to show how the shape of the room can affect the sound.

Nelson57

I tend to agree with you aaharvel on LSiFX thats why I was hesitant to pull the trigger. I know timbre matching is not as important on the surrounds, but I still prefer to match my system all the way around. I'll just pick-up another pair of FXi5s and move the 3s to the secondary system in the smaller room.

I'm going to play around with positioning and inverting a little more to see which way gives the best overall sound. My system is all 99.9% for movies so the going with the Di/Bi poles all the way around is my preference. Thanks for the inverting suggestion.

Boy this is fun!

aaharvel

and addictive.

Kuljit

I have the following for my 5.1 setup:
fronts: rti 10
back: rti6 bookshelf
front center: csi5
Now I want to setup for the 7,1 setup so should I get the surround dipole fxi A6 speakers for surround so I get sound all over when I place them on back sides and put the bookshelfs right in the back behind the seating to complete this setup or should I get another pair of rti6 bookshelf so I got 4 of all of the same speakers in the back?

Dennis Gardner

FXs on the side in dipole mode, bookshelfs in the rear is the suggested useage.