5.1 or 7.1, seat against wall... ??

mikehpolk

Yamaha HTR-6063b receiver (Canadian version of RX-V667)
1 set RTiA7's - fronts
2 sets RTi4's -surrounds or presence
CSIa4 - center
PSW111 - sub

The room I'm using for my HT setup is a bout 12' x 18'. Since the short wall has a glass door, I'll be setting the TV and couch against the long sides. However, it leaves me with little space to pull the couch from the wall to fit the rears behind my seating...

So, will having my rears mounted more-or-less over my head not work? Being a rental, I cannot cut out a hole and mount them inside the wall.

Would i be better off putting one set off to the sides of the couch, and use the other set as the "presence" speakers that my Yamaha receiver can utilize? (Yamaha says the presence thing mounts smaller speakers to the far high corners of the setup to bolster the front sound field)

Is 7.1 even worth it? after looking for a bit, it seems that very few movies are encoded in true 7.1, and that most movies will let the receiver work out a "fake" 7.1. Does anyone have an opinion on the use of a presence setup? I'm stumped...

Any opinions on this would be great. I've had all these speakers for months, but this is the first chance I've had to use more than the 2x fronts. Which I'm loving, by the way. Now that they've had time to break in, they sound fantastic.

mdaudioguy

Welcome to Club Polk!

My suggestion is 5.1 with FXi speakers on the back wall. Use one pair of RTi4 for presence, if you feel so inclined, and use the other pair for a nice, little 2-channel rig elsewhere in your home.

Here's some suggestions from Polk:

http://www.polkaudio.com/education/showanswer.php?question_num=78

http://www.polkaudio.com/education/showanswer.php?question_num=45

P.S. Or, sell a pair of the RTi4s to me!

apphd

Sounds like you would be better off with 5.1 IMHO. There has been some comments by others in regards to matrixed ("fake") 7.1 and about presence, front wides, and height speakers. It basically boils down to some like, and some do not. I think it comes down to the synergy of the gears, room, SQ of the gear and personal taste. Since it is a rental and you will not be running any in wall speaker wire, and it sounds like you already have the speakers give them all a try and decide which you like. When you decide you can hide the speaker wires and make the speaker placements more permanent.

mdaudioguy

jesushumper wrote: »

Would i be better off putting one set off to the sides of the couch[...]?

Yes, instead of behind you, bookshelves should be to either side, pointed directly over your head, about 2 feet above your head, give or take.

Is 7.1 even worth it? after looking for a bit, it seems that very few movies are encoded in true 7.1, and that most movies will let the receiver work out a "fake" 7.1.

A well-setup 5.1 is going to be better than a 7.1, if you have to cram all the speakers into your room. Given your layout, I'd say that if you can get 5.1 working, you'll love it. 7.1 is really more of an incremental improvement, IMO. I'm running 7.1 and almost everything we pop in is 5.1-encoded, so I just set up my receiver to matrix the surround channels to the back. Is it really much better? Probably not significantly.

Does anyone have an opinion on the use of a presence setup? I'm stumped...

I've used it before, and some of the DSP modes are cool, but after a while end up feeling a little gimmicky to me. I moved away from Yamaha for a little while, so I took those speakers down. I'm back now, and I'm seriously thinking about mounting another pair up there, mainly for the Dialog Lift feature.

mikehpolk

Hmm.. .thanks for the input, folks.

I thought about getting the FXI4's, but the 4 Rti4's were cheaper than a FXI set... I guess I'll end up trying them as the presence speakers for a bit. Though I've enver tried teh dialogue lift thing... I don't have another setup that need other speakers at the moment, and If I don't like the feature, I'll just keep them in a closet. Or maybe connect them as zone2 and keep them on my deck or something. Ya, I think I'll do that.

And no, I wont; sell them to you :P A little while ago i hooked them up as my fronts and was pretty surprised at how well good they sounded for their size.

And 2 feet above the ears, eh?

okay thanks again. I'll repotr back once ig et aroudn to this stuff..


Hm, could i get away with splitting the rear connections to both sets placed at the rear, like a fake-o bi-pole setup? stacking them, but facing in different directions? I doubt it, just tossign teh idea out there...

mdaudioguy

jesushumper wrote: »

Though I've never tried the dialogue lift thing... I don't have another setup that need other speakers at the moment, and If I don't like the feature

Well, you may not even need the feature. My three front speakers are all just below my screen - it's not bad, but I think it could be better.

Or maybe connect them as zone2 and keep them on my deck or something. Ya, I think I'll do that.

And no, I wont; sell them to you :P A little while ago i hooked them up as my fronts and was pretty surprised at how well good they sounded for their size.

Thought I'd give it a shot... Yes, they can stand on their own for some tunes in a separate zone.

And 2 feet above the ears, eh?

Yep, read the links I posted above.

Hm, could i get away with splitting the rear connections to both sets placed at the rear, like a fake-o bi-pole setup? stacking them, but facing in different directions? I doubt it, just tossing the idea out there...

Hmm, I doubt it, but you never know... No harm in trying.

mikehpolk

Well i decided to go for 5.1, surrounds at sides, (actually, my head will sit about 8" forward of the close side of the surrounds), and try out the Presence thing.

But now I see that I've misplaced my wirecutting tool

Thanks again.