Bipole or dipole question

JeffBowser

Hello, I am new here (obviously), and I have a question I have not been able to answer for myself by reading various materials. The question is should I set my FXi5 surround speakers (in a Dolby 5.1 setup) to bipole or dipole. The environment is this: the seating area is flush up against the back wall. The left side is mostly walless - open to the rest of the house (a lot of area, with cathedral ceilings 8-12 foot slope). The right side is a wall, with 3 tall windows. Due to aesthetics and the above restrictions, the left surround is mounted on the wall behind the couch, 7 feet from the ground, and the right is 8 inches from the side wall, also 7 feet off the ground. Both left and right are approximately 2 feet horizontally from either sitting position (two recliners). The room over all is 12' wide by 18' long, and in addition to the left side being mostly open, the far end also has a 5' wide opening into a hallway. Thanks in advance for any assistance !

wallstreet

I set mine based on movie type. For action movies with lots of sound effects, explosions, etc, I set to bi-pole. This tends to anchor the sounds around me. For all other movies, I go di-pole which provides a bit more realism.

JeffBowser

Thanks for the comment. My speakers are not convenient to reach, so it is unlikely I will want to be switching much. It would be much more clear-cut if my room wasn't so difficult. I've yet to see a diagram to match. One thing that gets me - with the speakers being immediately behind me, this would seem to be nearly the same thing as them being beside me.

janmike

Welcome. I went with what the manual indicated for my LSiFX's. Due to room constraints mine are set to di-pole as the I cannot put the speakers behind the seating area. I did try both and for me the di-pole setting was much better. The only drawback that I can conclude is that the listening pocket is more isolated.