[bpape]

Just for clarity...

1. The front wall being dead in a multi-channel environment has nothing to do with the style of the surround speakers. The point is to stop any reflections from either the side or rear surrounds from coming off the front wall and mixing with the front soundstage. Having the front wall dead with dipole/bipole side surrounds will do nothing to degrade their performance.

The whole point of that type of speaker is to sit in the null of the direct sound. That will be accomplished whether or not the front wall is dead. Realistically, most people have 2 rows but only 1 set of side surrounds and don't sit in that null anyway.

2. Diffusion can help provided the space is large enough and the distance to you is far enough. However, as far as absorbtion goes, there is more to it than just reflections. It's more critically a matter of getting the overall decay time across the spectrum into the target range based on the size of the room and it's intended usage.

3. Agreed on it making the surface appear to go away. Disagree on more absorbtion always equalling better imaging. One can get excellent imaging with a small amount of absorbtion and then not gain anything in terms of imaging while increasing absorbtion to bring the decay times into line.

On the other hand, I can put up TONS of absorbtion and not have it necessarily in the right place - or not obey the rules when it comes to speaker/sub/seating placement and have awful imaging. Absorbtion/diffusion are tools to be used along with proper setup - not an end-all by themselves.

Bryan