7.1 vs. 5.1

I currently have one 340 as center and two 170's as mains.
I am looking to upgrade and have budget of about $700.
I am wondering between buying two more 340's to go to 5.1 vs. buying four more 170's for 7.1? Please help me decide. Thanks.

how big is your room? Do you have proper placement of 5.1?

I have found, in my 14x18 room...about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of which is used for the HT, a properly placed 5.1 setup gives up very little to a properly placed 7.1 system.

Alex,

I have a similar set up (170 fronts + 340C), with 2 small satellites surround. Although my receiver is 7.1, I'm very pleased with 5.1 and I never thought about using 4 surrounds. If I had the chance to change my 170s by 340s, I would not hesitate. As Dave says, the 340 is their "very best".

In my opinion, 2 CBM-170 surrounds would already be overkill, unless your room is huge or if you hear a lot of SACD/DVD-A.

If you want to keep the 170 fronts, you might like to use the compact HTM-200, which people say to give up very little for the 170, specially for surround duty.

If you have the room, identical speakers would certainly NOT be a bad thing!

I have 170 L/R with an older B&W center. They seem to blend great. On the other hand, I always thought my cheapo two-way surrounds, with mylar tweeters, sounded good. That is until I replaced them with Axiom QS8's. Wow! What a difference real dome tweeters make! Seemless is the word I'd use. HTM-200's would have also matched better, but the imerssivenes of quadpolar surrounds has won me over. JMHO.

Thank you for quick responses.
I will check on the size of the room tonight but sounds like 5.1 with two 340's seems to be the winner. Thanks

Alex,

what subwoofer do you use? i'd consider changing that before going to 7.1, depending on what you have.

Hi Alex,
You also have to factor in where your seating is. It's next to impossible
to properly configure a 7.1 system if your seating is against the back wall
of the room. If this is your situation, I'd go with Curtis' recommendation
for a 5.1 setup.
My room is wider than it is deep, with 4-5 feet behind the seating area,
so 7.1 works well in there.

My room is 18X16 and have room behind the couch.
I have boston acoustics CR400 sub.
I know it is old but I feel it is OK.

as Yoda says, age matters not. ;)

go for 7.1. i'd try a pair of 340s and use the 170s as surrounds.

I have 7.1 (340LCR, 170 SL/SR, 200 SBL/SBR). Kinda weird I know, but the WAF wasn't too happy when I tried the 170s as rears, so 'compromised' with 200s in the back. Hard to explain without a picture, but they're in a visible trafficky area of the room, which the WAF doesn't appreciate.

But now, I'm probably gonna take the surround backs down and put them to use in another room. I haven't noticed a big enough difference in sound for HT or music when running 5.1 vs 7.1 in my smallish room (14x18 or so). Should've listened to everyone's advice in a similar thread I started a while back, to stick w/ 5.1. But, no major regrets, since my WAF-'get-what-you-want' coupon expired a while ago.