Question for 6.1 or 7.1 speaker recomendation

dsgordon · February 2004

Hi,
I am lookng for some advice. Don't know a lot about Hi Fi or home theater. But I do enjoy my HT a lot.
I use my system mostly for HT but listen to music ocasionally.

I currently have the folowing 5.1 HT system setup.
Room 13' x 20'
Monitor 50" sony LCD rpt (Center of 13 foot wall)
L-R speaker RT35i placed on stands
Center cs245i placed under TV in stand. (Tilted up so it sounds better)
Surrounds fx300i mounted on wall 6' high (slightly behind seating)
Sub psw 350 Using line out (located under left stand)
Onkyo thx 777 5.1 reciever.

I am thinking about getting a new 7.1 reciever.
Looking at Yamaha, Onkyo, Dennon. (Around 100 watts)
Mostly what I want is component switching.
(Curently have to switch everything TV input, Reciever,DVD,Cable)
Not a problem for me but no one else in the house can run it.
This helps with the WAF .

Questions?
Considering the size of the room.
Would 6.1 or 7.1 sound be any better than 5.1?
I have also seen pictures of HT setups using 2 subs. Would you recomend adding another sub?

What speaker or speakers would you recomend for the rear?
Should I use a single speaker and set up 6.1 or get 2 for 7.1?
If 6.1 would you use another center CS245i Or something else?
If 7.1 should I use fx or rt speakers for the rear. (These would need to be mounted on the rear wall)

When I look at the polk recomendations for systems.
They only show 5.1 systems.

I do not currently own any additional speakers.
I would look on ebay and such. To keep them all timber matched (This is what I have heard is important) I would need to start looking for speakers before I get reciever.
Since budget is always important. Should I just look at recievers and stay with 5.1?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Also anyone have any recomendations about a reciever.
Component switching and multi function remote a must.

Thanks Dave

P.S
I have had this room set up for about two months now.
(When I finished off the basement and got the new TV for xmass).
Reciever and speakers I allready had with my 25" TV upstars.

The super bowl was awsome in HD. Movies are fantastic and I have just about gone through my DVDs and watched them all again.

hoosier21 · February 2004

If you are going to the trouble, go 7.1 with another pair of 35i's if you can find them, and a Denon 2803 or 3803. Add another sub, sure man nothing better than more bass.

warlocks1 · February 2004

IMHO, you should get 7.1. You room is long enough to justify side surrounds. I would look at a Harman Kardon receiver with Logic 7. I would get a set of 35's or 25's for the rears and move the 300's to the sides. You do not need to get 2 subwoofers if you have one good subwoofer. I would get rid of the 350 sub and buy a SVS or HSU sub. Again this is just my opinion. Good Luck and enjoy the addiction.

I bet in another 6 months you will have upgraded 2 or 3 times to an all seperates system. Be careful, this stuff is way addictive!

amulford · February 2004

Personally I would look for a pair of floorstanding fronts w/ powered subs. Then take your two fronts and use them for the rear surrrounds. You could also move the sub behind you so you would be more enveloped in bass.

6.1 and 7.1 are just the number of speakers. The rear surround signal is just matrixed from the side surr. by the DSP. Both speakers get the same signal.

As far as recievers go, I like Denon 2803 or 3803, but HK put's out a very good product also. That is something I would shop around for.

warlocks1 · February 2004

Amulford is correct about the matrixed rear sound of 6.1 and most 7.1 except for Logic 7. That is why I suggest the HK reciever. The higher end models will do Logic 7 in analog mode, but I don't think it can do it in Dolby Digital or DTS. If you want that, you must get the Lexicon. Logic 7 in a 7.1 is awesome! The new Prologic 2+ will have 7.1 capabilty, but it is not available on any receivers yet. I STRONGLY suggest you demo the HK.

fgr41 · February 2004

Don't overlook the Yamaha RX-V1400 or RX-V2400 both are killer box's that will do 7.1. Hell if you do things right you can run a mock 9.1 system, 4 fronts. All the receivers mentioned are great to look at, I chose the Yamaha because of the plethera of options including PLIIx which can take a 2 channel signal and split it to 7.1.

Do some research...

A great site for research is avsforum.com

Good luck

warlocks1 · February 2004

fgr41, thanks for the info. I didn't know any receivers did PL2+. How does it sound? Have you had a chance to listen to Logic 7? If so, how does it compare? Thanks

fgr41 · February 2004

I havent been able to do an a/b with the two and my 1400 is on order, won't be in for a few more weeks. I am sure each will have their own +'s and -'s. Best thing to do would be to try and demo them for yourself and read as many reviews as you can find.

amulford · February 2004

Originally posted by fgr41
Don't overlook the Yamaha RX-V1400 or RX-V2400 both are killer box's that will do 7.1. Hell if you do things right you can run a mock 9.1 system, 4 fronts. All the receivers mentioned are great to look at, I chose the Yamaha because of the plethera of options including PLIIx which can take a 2 channel signal and split it to 7.1.

Do some research...

A great site for research is avsforum.com

Good luck

Another receiver which will do that is a Sunfire Ultimate. This is higher end but you may be able to find one reasonable like used.

I'm kinda partial but here's some info:

http://www.sunfire.com/receiver.htm

and some sales:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=sunfire+ultimate

and:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/srch_fs.pl

wallstreet · February 2004

Originally posted by warlocks1
Amulford is correct about the matrixed rear sound of 6.1 and most 7.1 except for Logic 7. That is why I suggest the HK reciever. The higher end models will do Logic 7 in analog mode, but I don't think it can do it in Dolby Digital or DTS. If you want that, you must get the Lexicon. Logic 7 in a 7.1 is awesome! The new Prologic 2+ will have 7.1 capabilty, but it is not available on any receivers yet. I STRONGLY suggest you demo the HK.

Well, actually you both are only partially correct. DTS ES is matrixed. DTS ES Discrete is a true 6.1 surround format. In DTS ES Discrete, the back audio surround channel is encoded into the bitstream. All of the latest surround receivers offer DTS ES Discrete format.

amulford · February 2004

Cool, I didn't know that. Thanks man:)

Question for 6.1 or 7.1 speaker recomendation

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