|   Deciding between 6.1 and 7.1 | John1974
Nov 10, 2003 7:43 PM | | Ok Im almost there, I spent all day looking at receivers. Nobody in the stores had a 7.1 if you can putit into words how is 7.1? Is it worth the extra money? |
| re: Deciding between 6.1 and 7.1 | poneal
Nov 11, 2003 5:58 AM | | I honestly think it depends on how big your room is. I have a 20 x 25 room and use 5.1. The 2 rear channels (if i understand it correctly) play the same thing as the two surrounds (with analog sources anyway). My wife is already pissed for having 5 speakers in the living room let alone another two. Also, most movies are encoded using 5.1. Plus, a 5.1 receiver is cheaper than a 7.1. My receiver only has amps for 5 channels but does have preouts for 7.1 in case i ever want to integrate it into the system. Hope this helps. Paul. |
| Where do you put the seventh speaker? | grampi44
Nov 11, 2003 10:25 AM | | I still don't understand where in the listening area you would place the seventh speaker in a 7.1 system. |
| Where do you put the seventh speaker? | John1974
Nov 11, 2003 11:14 AM | | You kinda putthem, behind the surronmd speakers....So your couch is kinda in the center of the room.....Kninda know what I mean??? |
| Its the sixth AND seventh speaker, not just the seventh...... | Sir Terrence the Terrible 1
Nov 11, 2003 3:51 PM | | John,
The sixth and seventh speakers should be on the backwall, about as far apart as the front main speakers. Another variation would be to place them each exactly 2-3ft left and right from the center of the room on the backwall.
Sir Terrence |
| re: Deciding between 6.1 and 7.1 | 3db
Nov 11, 2003 12:45 PM | | Try the following link;
http://dolby.com/ht/co_br_0110_ListenersGuideEX.html
To me its only worth it if the room is big enough to support this format. If you have a small lsitening area, I woul dthink that adding more speakers would degrade the listening environment from having to many reflections from the walls. Just a thought |
| With surround speakers, reflections can sometimes be good...... | Sir Terrence the Terrible
Nov 12, 2003 3:13 PM | | 3db,
Excessive reflections are a real problem with the front L,C,R, speakers, but for the surrounds, the reflections are complimentary, and add to the sense of spaciousness. These reflections also scatter in a pattern that often makes the speakers auditorily invisible or difficult to locate.
Sometimes reflections can be a good thing.
Sir Terrence |
| Its worth really depends on your needs and nothing more | Sir Terrence the Terrible 1
Nov 11, 2003 1:58 PM | | John,
If you have a really wide room, use dipoles for your surrounds, or usually have more than one person watching movies at one time then EX is for you. If you room is not particularly wide, you use direct radiators, and you usually watch movies alone, then EX will not be particularly effective. That's what it boils down to. EX is not a new format, nor is it the best in the west in terms of decoding movie soundtracks. It was made for theaters with inadequate speaker coverage on the back walls. It was NEVER made for use in the home until THX and Dolby saw $ signs and decided to release the license to the manufacturers of hometheater products. They then marketed EX as the next best thing in hometheater when it actually isn't. The ignorant public bought into it, and off EX goes.
Most hometheaters don't need EX. The ones that do, could skip the decoder and just add more speakers across the back wall and get the same effect. If the truth be told, most theaters could do the same thing.
Sir Terrence |
| Does it really matter? | grampi
Nov 14, 2003 9:47 AM | | Can you actually hear a distinct difference between 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1? |
| No 7.1 exists. In very wide rooms there is a difference | Sir Terrence the Terrible
Nov 14, 2003 5:06 PM | | Grampi,
When you have a very wide room, it sometime becomes impossible to hear phantom information that is recorded at equal amplitude, and at 0 phase in both the L/R surrounds. The information seems to "tear" apart leaving a sonic hole between the speakers. What EX (or 5.1+1) does is locate a speaker in the area where the tears occur, and feed it the information that is common in amplitude(and phase) to both channels. This fill in the whole with the information that was intended for that position.
In more narrow rooms, the tearing does not occur(if you sit exactly in between the speakers)thus EX is not needed.
Now if you are talking 5.1 versus 6.1 Dts discrete, then there is no competition. The discrete rear channel adds such a distinctive sense of space(and pinpoint accuracy in the rear hemisphere)that ordinary 5.1(as good as it is)just cannot compete.
Sir Terrence |
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