Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater surround sound speakers

Are surround speakers a special type of speaker i.e., will any ol' speaker work for a surround system or are they an especially made speaker? Are there components inside that are not in a "standard" type of speaker that is needed to make them work with surround sound system?

Some people use regular Bookshelves (direct radiating) for surround or rear channels, especially in the past. Personally, I like Axioms quadpolar design as you are SURROUNDED or enveloped by the sound. Also you don't have to be in the sweet spot when using this design to enjoy the full benefit. I would recommend you reading Alan from Axiom's technical advice areas link below from the main website.

The Inside Dope on Surround Speakers

Any speaker will work as a surround.

Some surround speakers have special designs (2 or more sets of drivers, drivers pointing out different sides of the speaker cabinet, different in/out of phase wiring) to make them do a better job of simulating a large movie theater.

Most inexpensive home theaters have normal speakers in the surround position, typically the same product family as the main speakers but one or two models smaller. Really inexpensive systems have 5 identical speakers for mains, center, and surrounds. They all work OK.

In the Axiom lineup, you have two choices for surrounds :

- regular bookshelf speakers which match the sound of the main speakers (M2, M3)

- special "quadpolar" speakers which radiate out the left and right, top and bottom and give you the illusion of a larger room and better surround effects (QS4, QS8)

The quadpolar speakers cost about twice as much because they have twice as many bits in them (two woofers, two tweeters, more complex cabinet etc..) but if you are happy with everything else in your system the QS surrounds will make a significant difference.

the reason I asked this question is I have a new A/V receiver, a pair of larger floor speakers, a powered sub and a pair of small 3-way "rear" speakers. When hooked up there is no sound coming from the rear speakers. I have the receiver set on 4.1 and the "surround sound rear" option turned on but no sound. I just thought maybe I needed a special type of speakers. The surround sound technology is still kind of new to me. Thanx!!

what type of AV receiver do you have? 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1, when you say it is set on 4.1 please explain? Your not going to have sound coming out of the left/right surrounds or rear channels (6.1 or 7.1 setups) all of the time. These special affects channels will be present off/on throughout movies. If your receiver has a mode for music listening on all channels you will hear music all of the time. On my Denon I have 5 Speaker or 7 Speaker music modes, although I don't use them very often...

Ah yes, welcome to the "figuring out all those ^%$#&$ settings" club

There is a good article by Alan on the Axiom site for just this purpose ("all the things you need to do to pry 5.1 sound kicking and screaming out of your home theater system").

Here's the deal. You won't get anything out of the back channels unless one of the following is true :

- you're playing a DVD with 5.1 sound AND you are hooked up via digital link (one coax or one optical cable) AND you have picked a 5.1 soundtrack off the DVD menu (many DVDs have 2.1 soundtracks as well and play them by default)

- you are playing a stereo source and have your receiver set to a mode which synthesizes back channel information (Logic7, Neo6, Dolby ProLogic (PL) or PLII etc...)

Give us some details -- DVD or CD, if DVD how is the DVD player hooked up, what kind of receiver, what outputs are your speakers hooked up to, what surround mode (be precise ) are you running in -- and we can probably get you running in about 15 minutes.

Here's the article Alan wrote. I found it very useful.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/archives/dolbydigital.html