# Bi/Di polar for back surrounds



## raynist (Aug 16, 2011)

I have Emptek speakers for mains, center and surrounds. I am thinking of adding rear surrounds for a 7.1 system. My side surrounds are their bi-polar speakers. I am not sure if I would benefit from using the same speakers for the back surrounds or if I should use one of their direct radiating speakers.

Thanks
Ray


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

I would go with bipolar speakers for the rear as well. How wide is the room? If it's narrow you could just do 6.1 and use one rear. Or if you have audyssey Dsx on your receiver why not do front heights instead? Just a suggestion. Either why I don't see a problem at all with using bipolar speakers all the way around. Especially if the room is long and wide.


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## fmw (Aug 11, 2013)

I would do the opposite. Most experts agree that bipolar surrounds don't really do anything that a single pole speaker system can't do. The EMP bookshelves will do you just fine. I'm an EMP user as well. Great speakers at an unbelievable price.


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

I use direct radiating for the rears and Bipolar for surrounds. However my room is long and narrow


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

Either one will work, it boils down to personal taste. I kinda like direct radiating all around. The official recommendation is bi-pole for surrounds/direct radiating for rears.

http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/home-theater/surround-sound-speaker-set-up/

Scroll down to the surround placement bullet point.


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## raynist (Aug 16, 2011)

Thanks for all of the suggestions. 

The room is actually 30x30, but almost cut in 2 by a stairwell, so the viewing area is more like 30x15. 

Not sure which route I will go. The regular bookshelves are about half the price of the bi/dipoles.


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## KelvinS1965 (Feb 6, 2011)

IMHO the surround backs make the least difference to the sound in terms of tonally matching the speakers and also whether they are mono/di/bi/tripole:

I used to run two pairs of M&K K4 tripoles as sides and surrounds. Then I pinched the back K4s for another room and replaced them with the cheaper monopole K5s. I honestly couldn't tell any difference yet my room is pretty much ideal for surround back set up with the sofa a good 2.5 metres in front of the back wall and 4 metres wide. 

Since the monopole option is half the price and IMHO won't make any noticeable improvement if you buy the dipole ones then better to save your money and use it elsewhere in the system and buy the cheaper option.


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## raynist (Aug 16, 2011)

Looks like the bookshelf speakers are on back order and have been for a while. 

Another option I have is that I have 2 extra of their smaller center channels that I could use as the back surrounds if I stand them up. They have an extra driver over the bookshelf speakers and are more efficient. I think this would work fine as long as they would fit/balance on stands vertically. 

Here they are:

http://emptek.com/e5ci.php


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## raynist (Aug 16, 2011)

I ended up going with the 2 extra center channel speakers I had.


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