FX500i placement

[The Old Gaffer]

I own a pair of FX500i's that I am using as left and right surrounds in a 5.1 system, I have them on top of bookshelves 5' tall which are located slightly behind and to the side of the sweet spot. the right surround is in a corner and the left surround is open to the kitchen so I had to go with bookshelves as stands seeing that I did not have a left side wall to mount on. My original intent was to mount them on the rear wall but my spouse did not want that look. A side wall is supposed to be better anyway so the bookshelf stands work pretty well. The issue I have is this: My wife does not like seeing the back of the left surround which is exposed in the kitchen so I found some large rubber stick on feet for the back of the speaker so I can lay them down and still leave space for the wiring, the result is that the speakers now point more toward the ceiling, they look great in this position but I was wondering if this would impact the sound and if I should still use the dipole setting?
Thanks!
Gaffer

[Ron-P]

Does it sound different when laying down?

Your wife, she does not like them on the wall, she does not like seeing the back if they are on stands. Yikes! Ask her where she'd like them and then TELL her where you are going to put them.


Peace Out~:D

[Larry Chanin]

Dear Gaffer:

As you probably know, your speakers can be run either as bipoles, in which case the drivers are firing in phase, or as dipoles where the drivers are firing 180 degrees out of phase. In either case the speakers are designed to be in the upright position firing generally out into the room and not up to the ceiling.

The bipoles operation is closer in function to direct radiating speakers in which its easier for the ear to localize the direction of the source. The dipole is used for ambiance effects where there is a lot of reflected sound. The intent is not to be able to localize the source of the sound.

Ultimately, which type of operation you choose depends on whether you prefer to be able to determine the source of the sound or not. However, many of the experts, i.e, Dolby Labs, Lucas Films, etc., feel that dipoles on the sides in a home theater comes closer to reproducing the ambience effect of having an array of multiple speakers as found in a commercial theater. Remember, that virtually all soundtracks are mixed for this environment.

To complicate things a bit more unfortunately, most soundtracks have both direct sounds and ambience sounds to varying degrees. Therefore, the perfromance of any single speaker type you chose is going to be a trade-off depending on the relative mix of the types of sounds. However, one thing is fairly certain, the performance of either type of speaker type will be compromised by pointing them at the ceiling.

I have a 7.1 setup in which I use f/x500is in dipole operation on the sides of the primary listening position. My recommendation for you would be to do the same, but to accommodate your wife I would camouflage the back of the speaker facing the kitchen with an attractive plant.

I hope this helps a bit, and good luck.

Larry

[The Old Gaffer]

If I asked her that she would say "back on the shelf at Crutchfield!"

I have not watched anything in full 5.1 yet so I am not sure how it will work, I did watch a little dish network in Pro Logic II and that sounded good. I thought maybe someone on the forum may have tried this and could comment. In the meantime the forum coined acronym goes on WAF (wife acceptance factor!)

Gaffer

[ted538]

Dude..you are making me sick...did you put your jewels in a box and hand them to her on your wedding day?...

[OrangeToupee]

I tend to agree with you, Ted, I'm thinking that by the sounds of things, the old gaffer is more likely to WEAR the jewelry than he is to pack any.

[goingganzo]

that is to funny i would say gput them on the walls and get some spotlites ans shine them on your surounds that would look good

[fireshoes]

When she's at work, put the speakers where you want them, then send her some flowers. She won't complain for a least a few days. ;)

[The Old Gaffer]

You guys are brutal!

It's not as bad as I make it out to be! The plan is to eventually construct a home theatre on the lower level walkout basement of our home, I could not afford to do both the construction and the HT equipment at the same time so I decided to get the equipment first and do the construction myself later. In the meantime I am using the family room for the home theatre, my setup is overkill asthetically for that room despite the fact that I would rather have a copy of "Sound and Vision" than "Martha Stewarts Living" on the coffee table!

So to be clear the Jewels are hanging right where they should be and thats not on the earlobes!
:D
Gaffer

[Kenneth Swauger]

Hello Gaffer,
Thanks for participating in the Forum. The goal of the F/X series speaker is to provide a diffuse, non-directional sound field. The analogy I use is a wall "sconce" lighting fixture. These style lights are placed on a wall's surface and they provide a broad illumination pattern cascading across the wall's surface. The wall becomes a part of the dispersion pattern fanning out the light. The F/X series operates the same way, except upside down, using the wall's surface as a radiating plane cascading the sound wave along the wall's surface giving a very broad dispersion pattern.
Is there a possibility of placing a flat piece of particle board or other acceptable reflecting surface behind the speaker if it were placed upright? Maybe something with a wood grain covering to reduce the visual disapproval?
Regards, Ken Swauger

[TroyD]

Truer words were never spoken brotha.....speakers tend to send the best when the lovely Wendi isn't complaining.

Ever notice the folks that make such claims tend to be single?? There might be a correlation there.


Troy