Many speaker companies include dipole or bipole surround speakers in their systems. What are they? In a conventional surround speaker, the drivers (woofer and tweeter) are mounted on one board, facing one direction. A dipole or bipole speaker mounts speakers so that the sound emanates from the sides of the speakers. In a bipole speaker,
Just when you thought it was safe to settle in and enjoy your 5.1 or 7.1 surround system, the folks at Dolby are conjuring up more ways to make surround sound even more elaborate. Why? Home theaters have gotten incredibly good with big screen TVs and excellent sounding audio. Commercial movie theaters need new ways
At our home, we have DirecTv. They broadcast many shows and movies in Dolby 5.1 surround. This enhances the viewing experience and in many cases, the surround audio is quite good. Normally, DirecTv receivers are not set by default to output Dolby surround. This may also be true for other cable and satellite services as
A question we're often asked goes something like, "I see that your speakers are top rated for home theater use, but I listen to a lot of music. How good are they for music?" The question implies that there is a difference between a great home theater speaker and a great music speaker. Here is
In addition to watching movies, most of our customers use their home theater systems for music as well. The source of music can be CDs, music over the Internet, iPhones, tablets, etc. Here are some of the ways to listen: Â Direct mode - some A/V receivers have a direct mode, which bypasses a lot of
The importance of your room's acoustic cannot be overemphasized! In college, I was working part time as a DJ at a local radio station. The studio walls and ceiling were covered in white acoustical tiles with little holes in them. You may have seen them in photos of radio and TV studios of the past.
 The prices of Blu-ray players can range from under $100 to well over $1,000. I think there is a lot of miss-information out there. How much should you spend? When you play a high definition Blu-ray disc on an inexpensive player, the video quality will probably be very close to that of an expensive
If you're fortunate enough to have high speed internet without strict data limits, you owe it to yourself to check out Netflix's instant viewing service. Netflix is the company that K.O.'d Blockbuster and other video rental places. Can you remember the days where you had to jump in your car, fight the traffic to get
In case you missed last week's newsletter, we announced the introduction of the new RSL Outsider II indoor/outdoor speakers. After the newsletter went out, we received a number of questions about installing them. So, we thought we give you a few pointers in this newsletter. The owners manual that comes with the Outsider IIs contains
(Based upon an imaginary survey by RSL Speaker Systems) Many of you already enjoy rich, high-end sound in your home. Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy that same level of sound outside (without having to open your windows)? We know a good portable speaker can "get the job done," but can it ever compare to
