Whether you like your surround speakers in monopolar, bipolar, or dipolar flavor, there's no disputing the fact that you need real surround channels to get the full theater effect. The problem is that they need space in your room, and if you opt for something other than a monopole, they tend to get creep towards "eyesore" territory. Internet retailer
Aperion Audio has dished up its 4BP bipolar surrounds for just such cases -- measuring only 5x12.5x5.8-inches, it's about as small as you'll get for a bipolar design, and Aperion crammed a pair of 1-inch silk tweeters and a 4-inch mid/woof into the small breadbox of a speaker. Pity it couldn't fit a bipole/dipole switch in there, but at $199 each and good-looking to boot, it's hard to complain. Our advice -- if you're holding out for a small surround speaker, downplay the "monopole/bipole for music, dipole for theater" wisdom and consider giving these an audition and
get going with surround sound!
posted Aug 25th 2009 10:28PM
They do make a good looking speaker. These would make great rears when combined with Aperion's other offerings.
The majority of center channel speakers are designed badly. To get the best sound you should have your Left's, Right's and Center be the same speaker type (ie, towers) or virtual standing bookshelf.
Have a good read my nerdy friends....http://www.audioholics.com/education/loudspeaker-basics/vertical-vs-horizontal-speaker-designs
I glanced at that link. While the article may make a technically correct point (I only read the first page before I started falling asleep), I doubt most people will really care in their homes. For certain, a small subset of people who fancy themselves audiophiles will definitely care and are right now throwing out their horizontal center channels and gleefully looking for something new to spend money on. Personally, I spent several thousand on my 5.1 channel Klipsch speakers, and I have a horizontal center channel with two redundant drivers. It sounds more than fine to me, and in the end how it sound to listener is all that matters. So for all the technical blah-blah-blah that I can only pretend to understand in an audioholics article, I'll stick with what I have.
I have these speakers, and they are fantastic. Rather than providing a back-left and back-right sound, it really does provide a full surround sound. I was pleasantly surprised with my Aperion audio quality.