No Room for 6.1? Advice Appreciated

zx_toth

Hello,

Im just getting together the parts to my first home theatre setup and due to my room constraints (12' x 16 ') I opted for a compact system. The speakers that I have now are:

fronts: RM7300 x 2
Centre: RM7302
R-Rear: RM6901
L-Rear: RM6901

Since my room is smaller and the rear of the couch would only be 12-16 inches from the wall would I get any additional benefit from upgrading to a 6.1 system? and how would I do that knowing that having a speaker directly behind you is not ideal (2 rear centre speakers?). I do want the fuller immersion from 6.1 but do not know how to pull it off with my dang couch practically against the rear of the wall.

Thanks.

Z

Frank Z

Based on your description, stick with 5.1.

danger boy

I agree with Frank Z, stick with 5.1 seems to me in your room size the extra effort to run another speaker wire(s) and mount a back channel wouldn't be worth the effort to me.

You won't be missing anything by sticking with a 5.1 system. That's why i have and my room is the same size as yours.

Dennis Gardner

Go 5.1 for 2 reasons:

1. You room is best served by a nice 5.1 setup.

2. Only around 300 extended DVDs exist. You aren't missing much.

So many people think they are missing out on alot of 6.1/7.1 tracks and the reality is that less than 300 of the 10,000 or so releases on DVD contain extended tracks.

Here is a nice list updated monthly to include verfied "extended" surround offerings.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?threadid=19190

John K.

Z, welcome. If you decide to expand your speaker setup it should be to 7.1, not 6.1. Although there's no 7.1 source material(and relatively little 6.1)using DPLIIx or Logic 7 to extract ambience from front(stereo source material)or side(5.1 and 6.1 material)channels and steering it to the surrounds where it belongs helps make listening a little more realistic and natural. Having two speakers in back allows having different material sent to each back speaker, for a type of stereo effect.

As Frank's comment implies, it's difficult to get a good back surround effect unless you have at least 4-5' of space behind you, and it's often suggested to stay at 5.1. One technique that works fairly well in close quarters, however, is to put the back speakers(separated to the left and right of the couch)on the floor up against the back wall and firing up to the ceiling.

aaharvel

it's not about what movies are made in 5.1 or 6.1. Doesn't matter. Prologic IIx will turn any source into a 7.1 of whatever. It sounds awesome.

BUT... what matters is your room. Again, if you're sitting against the rear wall or even close to the rear wall, 6.1/7.1 dpl IIx won't do you any good. In fact, it will prob. sound worse due to cancellation problems. Do what everyone else suggests. Stick with 5.1.

Holydoc

John K. wrote:

Z, welcome. If you decide to expand your speaker setup it should be to 7.1, not 6.1. Although there's no 7.1 source material(and relatively little 6.1)using DPLIIx or Logic 7 to extract ambience from front(stereo source material)or side(5.1 and 6.1 material)channels and steering it to the surrounds where it belongs helps make listening a little more realistic and natural. Having two speakers in back allows having different material sent to each back speaker, for a type of stereo effect.

As Frank's comment implies, it's difficult to get a good back surround effect unless you have at least 4-5' of space behind you, and it's often suggested to stay at 5.1. One technique that works fairly well in close quarters, however, is to put the back speakers(separated to the left and right of the couch)on the floor up against the back wall and firing up to the ceiling.

Agree

zx_toth

Thanks for the advice,

You guys are amazing ... just like the night before Christmas I go to sleep with home theatre questions and wake up with home theatre answers the next day! Thanks for the definitive answer and sorry for the bad analogy ... heh heh. I will stick with a 5.1 set up and consider expanding only when I transfer the HT to a room in which I have more space between the rear wall and the listeners. Thanks again.

Im happy to be here as I almost made the BIG mistake of becoming a newbie who fell for the BOSE cube speaker trap. But after I stopped listening to marketing hype, reading truthful reviews, and actually using my ears I decided upon Polk! I went as far as ordering the damn things and canceling the next day. Close call. :-)

Zx_toth