[gobrigavitch]

Hello

My current home theater uses 6 Mirage Omnisat and 1 Mirage Omni CC (center channel). These are omnipolar speakers which radiate sounds equally in all directions. They have a very wide sweet spot and are very seamless. My room has no treatments other than carpeting, false sealing and 6 home theater chairs. I'm likely going to be redoing my screen wall to go to an AT cinemascope screen and I'm wondering if I should treat the wall behind the speakers or not. I'm torn for the following reasons

1. I like the sound now so why mess with it?
2. Maybe it can be better
3. Will sound absorption destroy the reflected sound which the Omnipolars rely on to create their magic
4. Related to #3 - will absorption worsen the sound given Omnipolar speakers.

I'm really not sure what I should do as I haven't found a lot of good information on this subject. Every post I've read says to treat the front wall, but none relate specifically to omnipolar speakers.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions and experience that can be shared.

 

[boarder1995]

Treating for bass would be good - corners, etc. - with bass panels, but upper ranges will be defeating the benefit of omnipolar and rear reflecting speakers. It'll also likely make the output a bit quieter.

 

[Prof.]

Greg,

I think this will be a bit of a trial and error to find out what best suits your speakers..
Mounting them behind an AT screen is going to change the way they sound now, and I don't know of anyone using omni-directional speakers behind an AT screen..

Lining the wall behind the screen, is in most cases a must..but that's with direct radiating speakers..
One thing you might like to try is to use a 1" thick insulation material with a paper facing, attached to the front wall..
This should help to give some reflection for the higher frequencies..

 

[gobrigavitch]

I was reading some of Dennis Erskine's advice over on AVSforum. He basically advises that absorption is even more important with omnipolar speakers. That for hometheater you want them to scatter sound around the room, but you want to stop early reflections. So I think I'll try that and see. It's still a ways away until I do any construction.

 

[Prof.]

If anyone should know, he should..He's been in the business a long time..

 

[cinema mad]

With Omnipolar speakers I would be looking At diffusion up the front and treat the first reflections as usal... use membrane based bass traps in the corners as prof pointed out...

Dennis Erskine has one coveted Gold award for his work in the industry....

Cheers....

 

[gobrigavitch]

Thanks for all your help in this matter. I think I'll do the whole front wall as Dennis has recommended then do the first reflection points and the corner chunk traps and see where I'm at. I'm hoping I notice a big difference in sound quality