Hi Everyone,

I am not sure what type of surround speaker will suit me best. I am running a 5.1 system but my surround speaker location is not flexible. They will have to be around 4 feet behind my listening position on the left and right walls about 5 feet high. I currently have an old pair of bookshelf speakers there angled in and down towards the listening position. This seems to sound okay but I was wondering if I would be better off with a dipole/bipole setup.

Thanks

Actually your surround speaker position should be pretty good. Dipoles would not work there however. You may want to consider bipoles or direct - personal preference.

See the following link:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout2.html

Dolby has always steered clear of the whole dipole-bipole thing, but over the years I've had pretty much every type of surround speaker setup imaginable.

In your case, I'd at least be buying a pair of bipoles. This would give you a wider sweet spot, better dispersion, and some bounce off your rear wall.

Paradigm make very good surround speakers in their Monitor range. They're interesting in that the tweeters run out of phase, but the bass drivers don't. This makes them harder to localise (which you want), but still allows for unmarred bass response.

Axiom's QS8's are also excellent.

But even better still - buy a pair of Infinity BETA ES-250's (available in black or white)...
http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/surround-speakers/infinity-systems/beta-es250/PRD_324347_2742crx.aspx

If you have a 7.1 receiver, simply run an extra set of cables to them, tell your receiver you have 7.1, and run Dolby ProLogic IIx on everything.

The drivers facing the rear wall will act as the rear surround channels and fire backwards, giving you noticably beter depth, breadth and 360-degree imaging.

(This is what I would do... hands down.:))