Surround Speakers

Surround speakers produce atmospheric, ambient sounds — such as rain drops, the rustling of leaves, or footsteps crunching on gravel. They also work with your other speakers to deliver spectacular directional effects, like a locomotive rushing by, or a bullet zinging past. They really help put you smack dab in the center of the action.



Although a 5.1-channel surround system, with only one pair of surround speakers, is the most common setup, most newer home theater receivers can power more than a single pair of surround speakers — and there are surround formats to match. Today, many people buy one or two additional speakers to use as "back surrounds" in a 6.1- or 7.1-channel system.



What to look for:

• Speaker type. Ideally, your surround speakers should have the same performance capability as your front left and right speakers, but that's not always realistic when you consider room size and space. Most people use either bookshelf or satellite speakers (when the system also has a subwoofer) for their surrounds. Both bookshelf and satellite speakers may require stand placement or wall mounting.
• Dipole/bipole capability. Some higher-end surround speakers offer a dipole/bipole switch (sometimes referred to as a "Solid/Diffuse" switch). These speakers feature two high-frequency drivers that either fire in phase (bipole) or out of phase (dipole). Dipole/bipole speakers take advantage of reflected sound to create a wide soundfield, and they provide greater speaker placement flexibility.
• Placement. Correct surround speaker placement results in a very realistic three-dimensional soundfield; incorrect surround speaker placement can leave people asking, "Are our surrounds even on?" Check our speaker placement guide and consider where you'll put your surrounds and whether they'll need to be stand-mounted, wall-mounted, or even in-wall or in-ceiling models.
• Voice-matching. Again, for the most realistic listening experience, it helps if your surround speakers are from the same "family" or series as your main and center channel speakers, and have similar tonal characteristics.

by Julie Govan