Dipoles And The Mi Casa Magicians
Dear Gary:
I read with interest the On Screen article entitled "The Mi Casa Magicians” in April’s Issue 130 and have a question.
I am currently auditioning new home theatre loudspeakers to replace my current ones and have found that a number of manufacturers offer monopole and/or dipole surround loudspeakers (some even switchable). Many loudspeaker manufacturers tell of the advantages of a more diffuse soundfield offered by dipoles as the original movie was balanced (their word) for a cinema, I assume due to the larger number of loudspeakers in a cinema.
During your discussions at Mi Casa, was any mention made about the use of dipole surround loudspeakers in home theatre setups.
Greg Courbarron, Canberra, Australia
Mi Casa’s Brant Biles Comments:
There wasn’t any discussion of dipoles because we (Mi Casa) don’t feel they are a good choice for representing what I will call “vectored audio.”
I understand the reasoning behind dipoles... to give a more “diffuse” feeling. I believe, though, that there is a misconception if someone is saying dipoles are better because that’s what is used on a theatrical sound stage... this statement is not true. The dipoles are meant to emulate the array of direct radiators that are used in theatres... in my opinion, doing it poorly because you don’t get any primary sound reaching your ears from the dipoles, just the reflected and additionally reverberant sound that the dipoles create. The nice thing about 7.1 is that now with four discrete channels being used for sides and rears, I think a person can more closely emulate the array in a theatre if that’s what he or she is trying to do. I personally prefer direct radiators (monopoles) for the reason mentioned above.
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