Sound is attenuated by absorption, re-directed by reflection, and uniformly distributed by diffusion. Traditional home theater acoustical products focus on sound absorption and reflection. While absorption and reflection are important ingredients, effective surround sound home theater acoustical design can only be realized with a balanced approach that uses all of the ingredients in the acoustical palette. RPG®’s comprehensive CineMusic™ Product Line of AcousticTools™ provides products that offer broad bandwidth absorption, dedicated low frequency absorption down to 40 Hz, and critical surround sound diffusion. Room dimensioning and speaker/listener location optimization software complete the acoustical palette.

Today, the music and home theater industries are enjoying exciting new surround formats. Many of the seminal principles of our original RFZ/RPG® studio design will migrate to the new formats, with slight modifications. Since these new formats are so powerful, it is not surprising that at the moment there are two possible surround speaker formats: dipole vs. monopole. RPG®’s Room Optimizer™ software provides quick setup Wizards to get you started:

Dipole Surrounds: In the THX® format, the surrounds are dipoles located on the side walls to the left and right of the listener. THX® feels this arrangement simulates the commercial cinema experience in which there are several monopole surrounds distributed on the rear and side walls.

Matching Surrounds: In 1994, the International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, published their BS 775-1 recommendation for multichannel sound systems with and without picture. In this setup, all loudspeakers are equidistant from the listener and lie on a circle with the listener at the center. The left/right front speakers are 60° apart and 30° from the forward direction. The left/right surround speakers are 140° apart and lie 110° from the forward direction.

Home: Residential: Maximize the Surround Experience