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My dad is building a home theater system. His philosophy is: "Best of the best! (Assuming it's cheap and mass-market.)"
We purchased a 5.1 system with a beefy 7.1 receiver (Yamaha), and the speakers are made by Definitive Technology.
My main question is should we upgrade to 7.1. If they make media for it that is common, why not? Is the difference noticable? Are the extra channels useful?
The only thing my dad needs is somebody who seems knowledgeable to say. "They're great!"
So, any biters?
Follow Ups:
I've got a 5.1 set up in a 15 foot square room but am about to redecorate and install a 7.1 system, because in my view there will be more and more soundtracks utilizing 7.1 as high-def takes off, and een if you don't get into high-def I'm sure most new movies will be filmed in high-def with better sound, and the higher bitrate soundtracks will mean more 7.1 encoding on standard DVDs.
Even though the extra channel in a 7.1 set up is usually only the same signal as in a 6.1, I've read that the extra speaker does improve the seamlessness of the 'soundstage' especially for anyone who isn't sat in the optimum seat.
The link below is excellent and even has pictures!
Best Regards,
Chris redmond.
I'm with Chris. I think 7.1 is an important upgrade for HT applications that will become increasingly popular. Currently I only have one BD and one game that use 7.1, but I believe movie soundtracks are moving in that direction.
-------------"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." -Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)
A Squarish room suggests 7.1 won't be of much benefit, but a longer room (with display on the short wall) with rear surround speakers and side fills might make 7.1 desirable; Provided you have the budget for a 7.1 speaker/amp implementation.One question I'm curious about is when are the audio processors going to be able deal with 5.1 or 7.1 24/96 PCM, TrueHD, and DTS HD MA audio tracks and 'process' it for optimum audio distribution based on number of speakers available (5.1 or 7.1)? Not to mention dealing with bass management and/or time alignment issues.
.
If I can do it, with B&W Nautilus and Diamond gear in a tiny room, anyone can set up 7.1. At the very least you need to figure out how to set up a 5.1 system because you're missing out on too much of the HT experience.
-------------"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." -Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)
Material with 7,1 channels is not common.
Standard DVD has, at best, 6.1 channels with Dolby EX and DTS ES. The Dolby EX method relies on a matrix encoding while the DTS tracks can be discrete. Only a relatively small proportion of discs have either. The 6th channel is doubled to produce 7.1 when there is a 7.1 system available
BluRay and HD DVD are capable of discrete 7.1 but I'm not aware of how many actually currently ship with 7.1 tracks. Most of the reviews I can recall seem to refer to 5.1 tracks.
I run a 6.1 system. The extra channel gives a very seamless surround on the best 6.1 track DVDs I've got and it's preferable to 5.1 but the difference is small rather than major and you don't get any extra information, just better localisation. Synthesising a 6th channel using Dolby ProLogic IIx or DTS Neo6 produces a subtler change and I can happily live with or without it.
The big practical problem with 7.1 is room size. The side surrounds, the 4th and 5th channels, are placed just behind the level of the listening position. The 6th and 7th channel speakers need to be placed behind the listening position and you probably need at least a good 6' or so between them and you to get the best effect. That means a bigger room than you need for 5.1. I've got my 6th channel about 5' behind me and it works but more space would definitely be better, and that's true for all speakers in my setup.
If you don't have the room size to fit the speakers in behind you, you're better off with good 5.1.
If you've got 2 unused channels of amplification in your AVR, some receivers allow you to use them for bi-amping the front L and R speakers which may improve their sound slightly, especially for 2 channel music.
So 7.1 can certainly make a difference but it's not going to be a great one, there's only 6.1 rather than discrete 7.1 soundtracks available on standard DVD and only DTS provides a discrete 6.1 soundtrack there, probably limited availability of discrete 7.1 on the hi-def disc formats at this stage, and you need more space to get the most benefit from a 7.1 system and many people won't have that space. Hardly a compelling change to make but it does offer benefits if you do it. My feeling with 6.1 in my standard def system is that while I like what it has to offer, there's certainly not enough standard DVDs around with 6.1 soundtracks to make it a really cost effective upgrade.
David Aiken
The room is 19' by 17' by 9'. What would you do?
It depends on where you sit relative to the screen and the back wall. I've got a 7.1 setup and like David said, nothing really uses the back 2 channels. To get them to do something, I set the extra surrounds to use PLX encoding which is just a ProLogic synthesized sound. It doesn'r do that much really.
Once Blu-Ray disks become common, then with TrueHD, you would get discreet 7.1 sound. But it's probably a few years out before it all shakes out and the HiDef DVDs become common for rentals.
-Rod
It's not that easy.
You need to sit a minimum distance away from a speaker in order for the sound from different drivers to integrate properly so your speaker choice sets some limits on how close you can sit to them. You can place 2 way monitors with only 2 drivers placed close together a lot closer to the listening position than you can a 3 or 4 way floorstander with drivers spread over a much greater vertical distance.
Then you've got the screen size and viewing distance issues which determine where you're going to put the seats.
Finally you've got the question of whether you're setting things up for a single sofa or one row of chairs or whether you've got two or more rows of listeners because you're going to want the rear speakers to be far enough from the rear listeners for them to get a reasonable effect.
I don't know anything about your screen size, viewing distanc, speakers and their best listening distances so I can't say whether 7.1 would work in your room. If you're using a 40-50" plasma and standmount speakers it would probably fit in reasonably well. If you're using a 150" front projection screen it won't because you'd want to sit at least 16-18' from the screen and you'd have difficulty fitting a 5.1 system in if you need to place the speakers some distance from the walls.
Whether or not 7.1 will fit into a particular room depends on a lot of circumstances and you haven't given info on them.
And, even if it will fit, I still wouldn't call it a cost effective upgrade at this point in time even though I think it's a nice upgrade. If all soundtracks were 7.1, then it would start to become cost effective if you had the space.
David Aiken
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