7.1 vs 5.1
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Posted by Michelle Steiner on July 10, 2005, 11:58 pm
Please log in for more thread options When my house was built four years ago, I had the room that I was going to put my AV equipment in prewired for 5.1; I had a 5.1 system at the time. I recently purchased a 7.1 receiver. Is it worth it to install two more speakers and upgrade to 7.1? I don't know of any 7.1 sources yet, so the two additional channels will be playing the same signal as the existing surround channels, right? Thanks for any input you may have. -- Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by vij on July 11, 2005, 12:31 pm
Please log in for more thread options Hi Michelle. I think it is worth it to go to 7.1. Having a separate sound field directly behind you is great -- more enveloping, it pulls you into the movie that much more. There are some movies that have taken advantage of this, i.e., Gladiator, Star Wars and Terminator 2. There are no 7.1 DVDs nor 7.1 broadcast content anywhere. HD channels will give you 5.1 at the most, and DVDs have gone as far as 6.1 so far. (When the new HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs come out, that *may* change, however.) The two additional speakers will and won't play the same signal as your existing surrounds. They will kick in when you put in a movie that's recorded in 6.1 -- either Dolby Digital EX or DTS ES. The two rear surrounds will either play a matrixed sound of what's happening on your side surrounds, or they will play a discrete signal. For example, Gladiator has DTS ES discrete on the disc. It is a separate signal going to the rear surrounds. Now both rear surrounds will play the same information, obviously, since it's in 6.1, not 7.1. 7.1 can also be used on 2.0 sources (TV, TV on DVD, music) by using the PLIIx or Neo:6 setting on your receiver. I still listen to mostly two-channel music, but it is fun to play it in 7.1 surround. I remember "Gas Panic!" by Oasis was particularly effective when played on PLIIx -- sounded like some mad, howling black hole was directly behind me, trying to suck me in! As a side, 7.1 is indeed superior to 6.1. There's some weird phenomenon that takes place inside the brain: when a sound is directly behind us, our brain interprets the sound as coming from directly in front of us. But when you've got the same sound coming out of two speakers with a bit of distance between them, our brain is more able to correctly place the sound as coming from behind. Basically, you won't go wrong with 7.1. In fact, you'll love it! cheers, vij | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Michelle Steiner on July 11, 2005, 11:11 pm
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> Basically, you won't go wrong with 7.1. In fact, you'll love it!
Thanks. So now it's a matter of cost. It was easy to have the speaker wires put in the walls before the drywall went in; it will be a bit more difficult now--"difficult" means "expensive." Plus the cost of the speakers. -- Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Robin on July 16, 2005, 4:51 pm
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>
>> Basically, you won't go wrong with 7.1. In fact, you'll
>> love it! >
> Thanks. So now it's a matter of cost. It was easy to > have the speaker > wires put in the walls before the drywall went in; it will > be a bit more > difficult now--"difficult" means "expensive." Plus the > cost of the > speakers. > > -- > Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush. Go wireless. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by vij on July 17, 2005, 3:09 am
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>
>>
>>> Basically, you won't go wrong with 7.1. In fact, you'll love it!
>>
>> Thanks. So now it's a matter of cost. It was easy to have the speaker >> wires put in the walls before the drywall went in; it will be a bit more >> difficult now--"difficult" means "expensive." Plus the cost of the >> speakers. >> >> -- >> Stop Mad Cowboy Disease: Impeach the son of a Bush. >
> Go wireless. That is certainly a possibility, but I thought it was generally accepted that while wireless works wonders for computers and computer-related gadgets, they're not great for audio/video in a home theatre -- weak signals and all that. Unless you're talking about a gadget like the Kenwood RFU6100, which according to some folks on ecoustics.com, it works wonders. I use it for my centre rear channel, and I don't like it very much. I need to crank the signal to that speaker up to +10 dB (unlike my other speakers, which are anywhere from 0 dB to +3 dB) just to hear anything from it. What product(s) are you referring to, Robin? If it works better than the Kenwood, I'd love to give it a try. cheers, vij | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> to put my AV equipment in prewired for 5.1; I had a 5.1 system at the
> time.
>
> I recently purchased a 7.1 receiver. Is it worth it to install two more
> speakers and upgrade to 7.1?
>
> I don't know of any 7.1 sources yet, so the two additional channels will
> be playing the same signal as the existing surround channels, right?
>
> Thanks for any input you may have.