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Enterprise: A journey to surround sound [omnidirectional]

detlev24

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The title might be a bit misleading - but I could not resist. Pardon me! :D

I own a pair of omnidirectional loudspeakers in a particularly shaped room, where no dedicated listening area is available; rather three spots - relatively far from one another - where people would sit. In this scenario, "ambient sound" was the best compromise and this is really where omnidirectional loudspeakers shine. The only perceptible differences across the room are due to room modes in the bass region, which fortunately turned out not to be too disturbing at the mentioned three main listening spots. Flattening the bass response across the whole room [via DSP] is an impossible task; unless many subwoofers would be available and tolerated by the spouse, aka beloved governess. ;)

Throughout the years, I have repeatedly come across the "idea" to use omnidirectional loudspeakers for the surrounds in a multichannel setup [e.g., as 'rear L' and 'read R' in a 5.x application]. Bi-polar configurations are quite common, like the 'Revel S206', but why not use true omnidirectional loudspeakers for this purpose? What would be the pros and cons?


In order that the title makes some sense: I found a comprehensive set of measurements of a pair of omnidirectional loudspeakers; that is available in Europe.

Duevel Enterprise [EN translation]


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I am looking forward to read your thoughts! Maybe someone is already running omnidirectional loudspeakers as surrounds?

Thank you all.
 
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Certainkindoffool

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Sancus

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Unless I'm missing something, those things are only omni up to about 2khz and after that they're all over the place. And in general the FR doesn't look all that great.

I can see the logic of trying to spread sound around in, say, a 5.1 system, where you really only have the two rear speakers to add ambience and so perhaps there is something to be said for assisting that with room reflections.

However for surround I believe the goal if you are spending a lot of money/time/effort should be at minimum 7.4.4, and once you have so many speakers, I think there is little value in room reflections. In fact, they are probably even harmful if they are not as perfectly even as the direct sound from a world class speaker e.g. Neumann KH120 or Genelec 8030C.
 

pozz

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Unless I'm missing something, those things are only omni up to about 2khz and after that they're all over the place. And in general the FR doesn't look all that great.
Past that point you're relying on reflections to fill in the dips in direct response, which is a pretty effective tactic.
why not use true omnidirectional loudspeakers for this purpose? What would be the pros and cons?
The main issue would be controlling the diffuseness given the strength of reflected sound. The spatial effects might be inconsistent across seats, and imaging could potentially suffer. Omni speakers also tend to go for flat sound power (same FR in all directions), and the net effect could be bright.

From what I've read in multichannel literature, there's no dominant approach to room acoustics, but generally the assumption is that monopole speakers will be used with absorption to reduce reflection strength.
 

jim1274

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I know this a very old dormant thread, but not as old as restarting a 6 year dormant onmi thread that got me the nickname of “gravedigger”. Not sure how I missed this thread, but likely from not finding it in a global “Duevel” search. Since you apparently own the Duevel Enterprise, exact same one I’ve been doing extensive testing and comparisons to box and dipole speakers, thought I’d make a couple quick comments.

First off, an Omni is the last thing you’d want to use in a surround sound system, the excess early reflections near a wall messing with timber and such from my experience. It was only when I tested many Omni speaker locations in my 2 channel stereo experiments that I realized they needed plenty of distance from reflective surfaces to sound good.

Not sure what your room configuration is, but pull them well away from the front and side walls and see what you think. I had a pair of Duevel Planets before the Enterprises, and thought maybe I’d use them in a very long and narrow (plus highly reflective) kitchen, and they sounded horrible given no way to distance them much from the sidewalls.

If you have not experimented with placement well away from reflective surfaces yet, you have not heard what these Enterprises are capable of, a lot IMHO.

I’m detailing my ongoing Omni sage in a couple threads if any interest:


 
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