# Ideas for rear and side surround speakers



## beukes (Sep 7, 2010)

Hi everybody, 

I'm currently finishing off my first set of DIY speakers for my Home theater room. I decided to go with the Zaph audio 3.5 mains and 3 way center and now I'm looking around for surround sound speakers to compliment the speakers I'm building. I'm not sure whats the best way to go for surround sound speakers. I am running a 7.1 setup in a room of roughly 19' x 14' and my seating position is 10 feet from the front speakers and they are 3 feet from the front wall. I'm not sure if I should go with direct radiating speakers or any other types of designs. I can't seem to find much information on DIY rear and side surround speakers. so any input, ideas or information for designs will be appreciated.

Thanks


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

For side surrounds i like to use bipole/dipole speakers as they seem to disperse the sound more and for rears, front radiating speakers are a good choice if you have space between the seating position and the speakers so the sound gets to you. As far as matching the surrounds to the fronts it is not a bad idea, but not nearly as crucial.:T


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

I just noticed this is your first post. Welcome to the shack!:clap:


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## Lucky7! (Jan 7, 2008)

beukes said:


> Hi everybody,


Hi and welcome.



beukes said:


> I'm currently finishing off my first set of DIY speakers for my Home theater room. I decided to go with the Zaph audio 3.5 mains and 3 way center


The ZDT3.5 is a fine design from what others have said, but I've not head them myself.



beukes said:


> and now I'm looking around for surround sound speakers to compliment the speakers I'm building. I'm not sure whats the best way to go for surround sound speakers. I am running a 7.1 setup in a room of roughly 19' x 14' and my seating position is 10 feet from the front speakers and they are 3 feet from the front wall. I'm not sure if I should go with direct radiating speakers or any other types of designs. I can't seem to find much information on DIY rear and side surround speakers. so any input, ideas or information for designs will be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks


My comments assume you are listening down the long axis of the room.

When I started to design my current speakers, I read up a lot on surrounds and the various reasonings behind dipoles, bipoles and monopoles. Then I did some experimenting of my own and found I didn't like anything but the monopoles I tried as they gave a more coherent soundfield beside and behind, especially with SFX that panned across and/or past. General atmospheric stuff like rain and outdoors scenes also seemed more coherent to me too. I also didn't like them raised very much above ear axis, except for the rears which may have been a little better this way, I think because of my high seat back. Either way, it was not a make or break. The pictures on the Dolby site clearly show monopoles and the standard ITU and Dolby spec for mastering rooms is for 5 monopoles.

{FWIW my 4 surrounds are a 15" JBL with an 8" coax}

So my suggestion would be to find something similar to you Zaph's, but a bit smaller, and if you have the budget and space, make them four of the same. Maybe a quad of these or the smaller TM version.


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## beukes (Sep 7, 2010)

Thank you for the welcome,


Bambino: I've played around with bipole/dipole polk speakers and I was just not satisfied. Maybe because they were the smaller series speakers back when I bought them and I only used 2 of them. I will still play around with the setup but I want to find a nice design for DIY Bipole speakers.

A9X: Yes, my room is setup along the long axis of the room. I like the idea of the Zaph TM's but I read that monopoles should be 3 feet away from any wall. I won't be able to keep speakers off the wall on the sides, but it is doable in the back. Now after doing some reading i'm thinking put 2 TM's in the back to help with the point to point and maybe 2 bipoles on the side on the wall for more diffused sound. have you experimented with anything like that? or do you still think I should just stick with the quad monopoles?


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Yeah like i said that is why i like the bipole/dipole speaker for side surrounds is for the dispersion of sound but everyone has there own tastes and preferances.:T


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## Lucky7! (Jan 7, 2008)

beukes said:


> but I read that monopoles should be 3 feet away from any wall.


Not so. At worst you'll get a little extra LF out of them, not a bad thing.



beukes said:


> have you experimented with anything like that? or do you still think I should just stick with the quad monopoles?


Yes, *I* didn't like it.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Beukes, there are a few factors here to consider at the start. Your room will play a big part in determining the sound of your surrounds, including furniture, placement issues, height, etc. If placement isn't an issue and you can put them wherever you want them, I have to say I'm kind of a fan of monopoles. However, if you have design or other constraints to work around, sometimes monopoles won't be able to fill the rear surround field as well, or you won't be able to aim them correctly for proper dispersion. In this case, bi/dipoles can help you out by being less of a "point source" and more diffused to even out the sound and fill the area.

I build a dipolar single rear surround for my 6.1 system because I wanted to spread the sound out rather than having a single point in the rear. It worked well in my old setup, but now in the new house it isn't a great match. Overall it performed well though, and I liked it closer to the wall to bounce the sound from the 2 tweeters back toward the seating position. Check the link in my sig for details.


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