7.1 configuration and setup

leroyjr1

My HT room is 16x14 and I was wondering is the room too small to benefit a 7.1 setup. Also do they have to be at the same height. I currently have the surround backs about 2 feet above my listening position. I was thinking about putting the surround(sides) on speaker stands about ear level.Would this work?

Also one more (stupid) question. On a Bd that only plays 5.1 would the 6th and 7th channel play whats comes out the surrounds or they will not play at all?

Thanks

TNRabbit

Whether or not you get the surround back information on a 5.1 is dependent on your processor; some have a matrix mode where they mix part of the surround information into the back channels.

I've never found a helluva lot of difference between 5/7.1. Depends on your personal tastes & what material you watch.

amulford

More and more movies are coming out with 6.1/7.1 soundtracks. If you have the gear, why not? Would you benefit? IMHO, yeah... Just don't expect a mind blowing improvement.

TNR is right, in most there isn't a huge difference. But it does fill out the effects/surround fields. Depends on what you run for gear and how you calibrate...

reeltrouble1

I only know that upon this path a bag of bones has passed.

RT1

kuntasensei

Allow me to be the first to disagree with the others here. There's a BIG difference between 5.1 and 7.1, so long as you place the speakers at the proper Dolby-dictated angles around the listening position and do some careful setup. This is true of both 7.1 native material and 5.1 native material when processed with Dolby Pro-Logic IIx (which your Onkyo 805 can process, even with 5.1 lossless formats - I know, 'cause my 705 does). The difference is a more concrete sense of envelopment and more precise steering of sounds across the rear soundstage. Rather than a sound emanating from some general point to your left or right, 7.1 allows sound to be placed at very specific locations, which helps greatly with material that uses front to surround or surround to front pans (e.g. a plane flying overhead can now be localized to a specific path rather than just generally flying overhead).

With 5.1 material, Dolby Pro-Logic IIx basically takes anything that is exactly the same between the left and right surrounds (i.e. in phase) and moves it to the rear surrounds. Accordingly, any sound placed in between the surrounds at a varying level is placed accordingly. So let's say the same sound is coming out of both your left and right surrounds, but 75% in the right and 25% in the left. DPL-IIx essentially takes this difference in level and steers that sound so that it sounds like it's placed somewhere between the right rear surround and the right side surround.

Normally, I would say that 7.1 can be a good or bad thing, because cohesive sound across the surrounds requires very careful adjustment of distance settings so each speaker is in phase with the next speaker. However, the first listening position of your 805's Audyssey setup should properly set the acoustic distance of each speaker, most likely giving you solid rear imaging right off the bat.

I was iffy on 7.1 in my room because my couch is only a foot off the back wall and my speakers are placed about 3 feet above ear level. To help with this, I bought speaker mounts and angled the rear surrounds down as far as possible, then re-ran Audyssey to nail levels and distances. Even in my less-than-optimal setup, there's a MASSIVE difference. What I love most about it is with games with 5.1 surround from my Xbox 360, DPL-IIx does such a great job of filling things in to 7.1 that I can turn around in circles in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (or any first person shooter) and hear sounds pan around the room with very precise placement. In multiplayer matches of Call of Duty 4 or Vegas 2, I can't count the number of times hearing a sound come from behind me has kept me from dying.

Worth it, worth it, worth it. That's my opinion.