Page 1 of Rear speaker choice - bilpolar or not?

Hi

I have decided to buy some new speakers. I have choosen the Mission M73 for fronts.

My dilema is what to choose for rears, standard or bipolar speakers.

Are bipolar speakers the much preferred choice as rears?. If so why?.
Will it be worth the extra money to go for bipolar (mission`s m7ds over m71)

TIA

fyi: receiver is yamaha rxv620rds

My initial choice was similar to yours - RXV620RDS with M74s, M7CS and M71s. In the end after reading several discussions about the conventional vs bipolar rears, I bought M7DS.

The "problem" with conventional speakers is that they make it very obvious where they are - the sound is very localised. Bipolars diffuse the sound field and make it that much less artificial sounding.

Would you be "spoiling the ship for a ha`porth of tar"? I don`t know - I haven`t got any spare M71s to try in my setup ;) - all I will say is that it sounds absolutely stunning as it is!

Neon

Thank you for that i will take your advice and go for bilpolar for rears.

Can i ask you one other question which centre speaker do you have?.

I was origonally going to go for the M7C1 Centre, however i have today been down to superfi and the guy there suggested this was a very poor centre speaker indeed and does not deliver well at all. He strongly recommended I should go for the 77c1 as a centre.

?????

The M77C1 is a "better" centre than the M7C1, however it is also more expensive and balanced for the rest of the M77 range. It`s also a more "traditional" design of box (i.e. it`s a box) and (IMHO) less aesthetically pleasing then the M7C1.

What does it sound like? Excellent. It doesn`t need to be a full range unit, so as long as you`ve got other units to take the bass (and the M73`s will do that superbly), it delivers convincingly.

Superfi? If I was being cynical I may suggest they make more money on the M77 range ...

I bought mine from http://www.hifijunkies.co.uk - cheaper than anywhere else at the time, free delivery and a free extended warranty (5 years).

Slightly OT.

Thanks for the hifijunkies link. Nice and cheap. Luckily I bought the M74`s, M7C1 and M7DS from QED for the same price :)

Haven`t had a chance to test them yet at home (sorry ant-dvd). However, when I tested this kit in a demo room I was very impressed with the centre speaker. It was beautifully crisp and clear and complimented the other speakers perfectly. It looks nicer than the standard black box style centre speaker too.

Now, if some nice person at Miramax would release the Three Colors Trilogy on DVD I`d be beyond happy.

Aaah,the age old surround debate.

Put simply,if you`re going to be serious about your surround sound,then dipole rear speakers are a MUST HAVE. Since i`ve had my M+K tripole(same as dioles but fire in three diections not 2), listening to conventional direct radiating speakers just doesn`t feel right. Surround is all about envlopment-not distraction. If you constantly turn around and look at the speakers when a surround effect is produced then you (a),have the surrounds turned up too high and (b), have your speakers incorrectly placed. Dipole speakers reduce localisation, spreading sound in two directions over a wide arc, rather than one direction over a narrow arc. This fools your ears into believing sound is coming from nowhere, as opposed to left corner and right corner.
If you must use conventional speakers then place them arpund six feet up the side walls of your room and angled around 15-20 degrees to face the rear wall. This will ensure the surround effects will be less `in your face` and spacious rather than distracting. Using the test tone will help you achieve the best balance too.
But for the silly asking price of £170, Missions m7ds are the most affordable and best quality dipoles around-audition a pair and your system will gain an `auditorium` quality which in the scheme of things will sound better than your local multiplex.
Diople is the striker, conventional is the unfit substitute!

All the best

Westy

The dipole rears it is then, thanks for fully making my mind up westy.

I would like to go for the M7C1 centre as this more asthetically pleasing then the 77 centre, but the guy in the superfi shop has really convinced me that the plastic exterior and basicness of it means it really isn`t up to much in comparison to the 77.

RS dont have any of these in stock so i am unable to audition them for myself hence my question here. Apparantly one of the arugments the guy said was the the 77 you could sit anywhere in the room and the centre was superb whereas with the MC71 you really have to be sat directly in front of it to get "decent" sound.

Lard - perhaps you could post your remarks when you have yours plugged in?

OK, got them all set up now and the sound is fantastic. Not sure what the guy meant about not hearing the centre speaker (m7c1) properly when not sat directly in front of it. I checked this, even from behind the speaker, and the sound was fine. I think he was BS`ing you.

The rears (m7ds) were good too. Didn`t `look behind` once :)

I`ve been a fan of Mission for years and this new set has only confirmed my opinion. They rock!

Hi Lard im so jealous, i cant wait to get mine.
I am currently waiting for my amp to arrive before i order the speakers.

The thing about superfi was the price worked out the same which ever centre i was going to get, so he wasnt telling me this to make money.

Although i appreciate you say the m7c1 is great i cant help but wonder what difference the 77 centre would make

At the end of the day YOU have to be happy. If you keep thinking "if only I`d bought ...", you won`t be.