Any truth to the rumor of dipole Ascends?

[metalaaron]

IMHO there is no need for dipole speakers any longer due to the advanced surround playback capabilities of receivers coupled with the well recorded soundtracks on DVDs. i tried dipoles once and could not stand them. i prefer direct firing speakers for head turning positional sound.
to be brutally honest, i felt that dipoles held the sound back. direct firing speakers are more revealing and more fun IMHO.

try them out. i doubt you'll be disappointed.

[curtis]

DavidF mentioned in another thread that he had something on the drawing board, but nothing definite.

But I am with metalaaron.....the disperstion of the Ascends is very nice....and sound engineers do not use dipoles when mixing a soundtrack. With dipoles, I also think you lose some location accuracy.

-curtis

[bikeman]

My experience. In the "sweet spot", dipoles will not sound as good. Away from the sweet spot, dipoles will will give a bit better sound. I never watch home theatre anywhere but in the sweet spot so dipoles are not for me.
I would expect the same would be true for multi channel music but I don't have any first hand experience with SACD.

David

[Eddie Horton]

My understanding of the mono/dipole issue goes back to the first THX specs where dipoles were recommended to give you that diffuse, theater-like sound. Dolby, on the other hand recommends monopoles, and since the soundtracks are not mixed with dipoles I tend to agree. Specs and recommendations are not the end all be all, however, because personal preference will always win out. For me, it just makes sense to have monos all around. If I get a jet flyover starting from left front going to left rear, I don't want to be able to tell it starts from left front and somewhere in the middle it just melts into the rear of the room. I like the directional quality of monos, but others disagree. I'd get a listen to both and see where your preferences lie.

[boxand1]

When I was looking at speakers and was in regular contact with David, he mentioned that dipoles were in the works, but it would be at least a year until deployment... I dunno if I would give up the monopoles for dipoles, however.

--D