planned 7.1 setup, is this overkill?

[curtis]

I don't think so.

I'm going to try it, and my room is 14x18...and not all of it is dedicated to the theater....so the actual "entertainment" area is smaller.

My 7.1 upgrade will be completed around the middle of next week.

-curtis

[jbliz]

Middle of next week huh? Man, I'm jealous, I won't have the funds until near the end of June. Then I will not leave my basement for about 6 weeks. I'll just have my girlfriend toss some food and drinks down from time to time.

[curtis]

Right now....5.1 sounds so good, I can't imagine 7.1 being that much nicer. Since I have everything, I figured I would try it.

-curtis

[jbliz]

I was originally going to do a 5.1 setup, but I just have to go 7.1 because the room is so perfect for it.

I'll post some pics once everthing is set up. Probably early July.

[graphicguy]

I've been "flamed" before for my belief that 7.1 adds little over 5.1 (depending on room size), but if you look at the THX diagrams on how a 7.1 system is supposed to be set up, you might agree with me. Here's how THX says a 7.1 system should be set-up....

left front...................center................righ t front
subwoofer

left sur............................................rig ht sur

.................left rear sur/right rear sur.................


In other words, the Left Rear Surround and Right Rear Surround are supposed to be set up next to each other. From a practical point of view, that wouldn't leave much in the way of signal separation for the two rear surround speakers.

My contention is to keep to a 6.1 system with one rear surround and save the money of hte extra speaker and still get 99% of what two rear surround channels will do for you.




Sony WE610 60" LCD RPTV
Pioneer Elite 59TXi AVR
Pioneer Elite 59AVi Universal DVD player
CBM 170 Front L/R
CBM 340c Center
HTM 200s Rear L/R and rear surround (6.1)
HSU VTF-3
Monster THX certified interconnects
DIY speaker cable (that's better than anyhing I can purchase elsewhere)

[jbliz]

yeah, but then dolby recommends the back surrounds to be spread apart wide. I don't know who to believe, or which configuration is better. However, I decided to spread my back surround out (speakers aren't in place, but wire is fished through the walls). I decided this because I plan on purchasing a Denon 3805 and using PLIIx for 7.1. I figured I should probably do what Dolby recommends if I'm gonna use PLIIx.

[curtis]

graphicguy,

I think the arguement is that a single rear center is more likely suffer from a direct reflection off of the front wall, making it seem like the sound is coming from the front.

-curtis

[jbliz]

I've heard that to curtis, which is why I was so confused when I saw that THX recommends putting the back surrounds so close together. Perhaps the THX post processing takes care of the problem of making the rear speaker sound like it's coming from the front.

[graphicguy]

A couple of things I notice with a 6.1 set-up....

1. Any DVD that allows for a discrete 6th channel (DTS-ES Discrete) adds a lot more to the sound than having IIx decode 2 channel sources into 7 channels.
2. While others swear putting IIx to use with 2 channel sources decoding into 7 channels decoding scheme is the way to go, it nets me very little, if anything, over using 6 channels.
3. This is compounded by the THX set-up by using two rear surround speakers placed beside each other.

My conclusion...even though my rig is 7 channel capable, I'm quite happy using it in a 6.1 set-up. While I'm certain there is some signal separation of the rear surround channels (in 7.1), I question the real world difference it would make by adding another speaker to a 6.1 system.

Given that there is no source material currently encoded with 7.1 channels, but there are sources encoded with 6.1 (DD-EX matrixed, DTS-ES matrix and discrete). I'll stick to 6.1 for now. That may change if there ever comes a day when 7.1 sources are ever introduced.

Sony WE610 60" LCD RPTV
Pioneer Elite 59TXi AVR
Pioneer Elite 59AVi Universal DVD player
CBM 170 Front L/R
CBM 340c Center
HTM 200s Rear L/R and rear surround (6.1)
HSU VTF-3
Monster THX certified interconnects
DIY speaker cable (that's better than anyhing I can purchase elsewhere)

[jbliz]

Graphicguy,

If I were in your situation, I doubt I would spend the money on a new speaker either.

But since I don't have anything, and the price of going to 7.1 when buying a package from Ascend is pretty cheap, I figured I would go ahead and give it a try. Plus, I only want to fish wire once.