Paradigm ADP150's in a 7.1 system

The answer is in the manual of your surround processor.

What kind of speakers does it show?

If it shows dipoles use dipoles, if it shows monopoles well I think you''re getting it by now.

The choice of dipole/bipole/monopole for side and back surrounds should be guided by personal taste, room layout (including speaker placement in relation to listening position), and intended use (HT vs. music). Most surround processors are not designed around any particular type of speaker. My pre-pro manual doesn't discuss types of surround speakers (other than small vs. large) and I doubt that many other surround processor manuals discuss this topic either.

I only have one audio system. For movies I use 7.1 and for music I use 2.0 or 2.1. I currently don't do multichannel music. I have KEF dipole surrounds and Paradigm Titan monopole back surrounds. They sound fine.

You will probably be very satisfied with the ADP 150 as your surrounds and/or back surrounds. The only thing about dipoles is that your listening position needs to be within the dipole null space in order for the speakers to "disappear." The Polk website and other websites, as well as the dipole speaker operating instructions, have diagrams illustrating null space. If you can't place the dipoles correctly, then bipoles or monopoles might be better.

Thanks for the responses. I definitely didn't find anything in the owners maual regarding this. I probably should have added that my system will be used 99% of time for music(DTS, SACD and DVD-Audio). It seems the majority of reviews say that dipoles are not good for multi-channel music. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

Spanky, often the speakers will not be literaly defined, as Javachip has expressed this need for freedom of choice in his post.

Manufacturers will draw pictures of the speaker layout showing sound coming out of the speakers dipole monopole.

What brand processor do you have, that would help. Then I could tell you what type of speakers it needs.

I have a Harman Kardon AVR 335 7.1 receiver. I just don't want to waste my time or money on the wrong equipment. Thanks for your help.

HK is monopole all the way, you should be looking 3se's or Monitor se's for rear channels.

The Harman Group has some homogeny with their surround algorithms, only the all out THX units of old will mention dipoles.

http://manuals.harman.com/hk/Owner%27s%20Manual/AVR%20435%20OM%20FINAL%20(web).pdf,

this is a link to the 435 manual, on page 19 you will see a picture on the setup, which shows how the rear channels are supposed to be setup. they have made this much more vague than it used to be as they would simulate sound waves coming out of the rear channels defining the speakers as monopole.

But you can see that Dipoles are an after thought in the 2nd paragraph third column.

Is there another way to get to that link page?
It keeps saying page can not be found. Thanks

Also, are you familiar with the Infinity ES250 that can be switched between bi, di or monopole? It's on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=019&item=290010233290&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

For high-resolution multichannel music, you are better off staying with the same speaker brand, and preferably within the same model series, for optimal "voice matching." This often means having the same drivers in all speakers. The surrounds do not need to have as much bass extension as the front mains, but they should have the same tweeters, midrange (or woofer if they are a 2-way design), and crossovers.

I do not currently listen to SACD/DVD-A music, but there seems to be a consensus favoring monopole surrounds for that application. The notion here is that monopoles will more precisely recreate the spatial imaging as the recording engineer intended you to hear it. But beware: if any one of your monopole surrounds is less than about 6 feet from the listening position, it may "stand out" as a sound source and fail to blend in with the other speakers.

Once again, let your ears and your listening room layout be your guides.

D_Edwards & Javachip,

I appreciated your input on my questions. I just found this article on Paradigms website about surrounds.