Which speakers have wide dispersion?

Having been a fan and owner of various types of planar speakers for over 45 years, I can wholeheartedly agree. Conventional dynamic (box) speakers are the opposite, with the sound coming from a point source, albeit when done well can present a wide and deep sound-stage. Nonetheless, you need to be in or at least near the sweet spot or there is a great drop off in many critical aspects of the sound. For the last many years I have become more and more enamored by the large Sound Lab electrostatics. With these, there is not a bad seat in the house. Even in the next room and beyond, it is as if you are near the presence of live music, with full timbre, body and presence. Because the entire panel is a full range membrane/driver of considerable size, all of the air in the room is excited and this carries on. My wife doesn't much like the audiophile "sweet seat" experience, but she loves being in the near presence of the great music. Granted, the imaging is generally best at one particular point, but every other seating position is entirely enjoyable. So my vote is not really omnidirectional, but electrostatic planars.

Even though there are some very fine cone based systems out there, I would have a hard time going back to traditional speakers.

Thanks for the mention, Shadorne!

At this point only one of my speakers would qualify as "wide dispersion", and that's my big Dream Makers, which are bipolar (kinda like their designer). But instead of the pattern being very wide primarily in the forward hemisphere, it's 90 degrees wide both front and back.

I chose this configuration because it's desirable to have as long a time delay as practical before the onset of the increased reverberant energy, and in most rooms the geometry works out to give a longer time delay if the extra energy is directed to the rear rather than to the sides.

As a longtime SoundLab owner and dealer, my observations echo those of Twb2. In fact, my bipolars deliberately seek to emulate the radiation pattern geometry that SoundLab designer Roger West used in the big A-1; that is, 90 degrees wide, both front and back. I received a Golden Ear award from Robert E. Greene for my bipolar, so maybe it works.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Any Shahinian speakers, but Obelisks come to mind first and followed by Dhalquist Dq-10

Find out whether you like omni type speakers, cheaply. Parts Express has a close out of the xbox Spherex speakers. I have the original xbox spherex system and it is amazing. I think you can get a pair for $50.

Pedrillo - wide dispersion is possible in a conventional speaker and it is also possible in an omni directional speaker (Beolab 5, Ohms, MBL)

However, contrary to popular belief - a large panel tends to have a narrow dispersion and suffer from lobbing - this tends to result in a smaller sweetspot. Of course the back wave from a panel creates an impressive ambience but this quite different from a point source with wide even dispersion. IMHO.

Because Omni's and most panels excite a backwave towards the wall behind the speaker they will be more restricted in terms of placement - however they will have a wide sweetpot.

Panels tend to have a smaller sweetspot beaming/lobbing and are also restricted in placement due to the backwave.

Originally I thought your thread was about wide dispersion - my initial comments refer to that. Wide dispersion gives a natural sound form a wide variety of positions.