5.1 or 7.1?

csnoff · December 2011

Hey all. I hope everyone had a great holidays thus far. Anyways I am wondering a few things.

1. Does my reciever have enough JUICE to power a 7.1 setup
2. Is it worth it to run a 7.1
3. Do I gain anything by going with a 5.1 and if so what should I set it up with.
4. I mainly use it for movies and general tv watching, so I dont really crank it up too loud.

I also got a really good deal on the FXiA4 so I couldnt pass them up and just use them anyways.

My setup is as follows

HTR 6190
CS 20 centre
Monitor 70 fronts
FXiA 4 rear surrounds
Polk Audio M20 surrounds
PSW 10 (to be upgraded at some point)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

wayne3burk · December 2011

i think you should go 5.1 or 7.1 -- but i'd recommend using presence L & R in any case as the yamaha presence speakers add something.... IMHO

here's a link to the pdf manual for the RX-V1800 (which someone told me is apprx. the same thing as your HTR 6190)

\wayne/

Dennis Gardner · December 2011

The 5 or 7 channel debate is really about Where you sit in your room. If your room is shallow and your sit toward the back of the room, 5 channel works best. If your room is deep and you sit in the middle of the depth, 7 channel works better. Others may think different, but it really can be that simple. As far as decoded formats, the large bulk of movies are still only 5 channel, and no broadcast TV is 7 channel yet, that I am aware of.

John K. · December 2011

CS, sure the 6190 should have no problems with powering them if back surrounds are added. Keep in mind that the back surrounds aren't operating at the same volume level as the front speakers most of the time and tests which drive all 7 channels at full power simultaneously don't represent something which is likely to ever take place in actual home listening.

As to whether it's worthwhile in comparison to a 5.1 setup, the key factor, as Dennis points out, is where your listening position is in the room, and you don't mention this. If you're right up against the back wall with your ears maybe just a foot away, there's not enough space for a rear sound field to be effectively experienced. I typically suggest that there should be at least 4' of room.

If you have the space, your 6190 can be used in DPLII and DPLIIx modes to play in the back surrounds content which is naturally present in 2-channel and 5-channel source material and which is best imaged in the back.

csnoff · December 2011

Thanks for the replies guys. So I guess the question should be which speakers should I use as surrounds then? The fxia4 or the m20?

tonyb · December 2011

The 4's are the better speaker.

burts · December 2011

Lot of people said my setup wouldnt work good in my small room, they were wrong!
Im running 9.1 with my yamaha with emotiva amp in my small 18x20 room and the sound is amazing in 7.1 dts hd

kuntasensei · December 2011

burts wrote: »

Lot of people said my setup wouldnt work good in my small room, they were wrong!
Im running 9.1 with my yamaha with emotiva amp in my small 18x20 room and the sound is amazing in 7.1 dts hd

Same here. Couch is about 18" from the back wall... rear surrounds mounted angled down and carefully integrated, running 9.1 with an Onkyo TX-NR1007 with dipoles on the sides. Nice full sound with pinpoint accuracy across the rear soundstage, especially with newer stuff that's 7.1 from the theater (and it's a huge advantage in games).

Keep in mind that when Dennis says, "the large bulk of movies are still only 5 channel", that's only half true. The majority of movies since theaters implemented Dolby EX have been mixed with rear surrounds in mind, though the information is contained within a 5.1 bitstream and typically not flagged as such. As Dennis says, if your room is problematic for rear surrounds, you're probably better off with 5.1 (and dipole sides will sound nice in that configuration)... but don't feel like there's a lack of content for a 7.1 setup, because most 5.1 movies since The Phantom Menace have been mixed for Dolby EX and DPL-IIx is what Dolby recommends to reproduce this in a home 7.1 setup.

dfretwell · January 2012

This is the best answer I've seen on this subject. It all depends on where you sit!

BlueFox · January 2012

dfretwell wrote: »

This is the best answer I've seen on this subject. It all depends on where you sit!

Was your New Year resolution to post one sentence responses to every thread you can find?

csnoff · January 2012

Thanks for the replies once again guys. I do have limited space as my couch is up against the back wall so there really isnt the room for the full surround effect. I think I will try and have it setup so that I am running a 5.1 with the FXiA4's as the rears. Question on that though. If they are placed to either the left and right side of the couch a little above ear level should I be in Bi-pole mode or Di-pole mode?

Also one other thing do you think it would be worth it to run the m20's as presence speakers up at the front? where would they be normally placed in this case?

Slinger182 · January 2012

Here's some info.

http://www.polkaudio.com/education/tech_article.php?id=27

evhudsons · January 2012

I noticed some of the best surround experiences I've had using my rear back channels are older movies. One was a dragon movie with Sean Connery and Dennis Quaid (Dragonheart). When the dragon flew around it was really flying in a perfect circle around the room seamlessly moving in regard to speaker placement. It was pretty cool but it was not a "7.1" surround movie. I was simply watching on directv. I'm assuming it was my decoding but I have it setup for automatic.
Dumb movie, but I love Sean Connery and couldn't stop watching. Great surround effects.

I thank the OP and responders for this thread. I had the same question a while back but surmised the answer rather than getting it directly. Now I have separate amps to run my fronts and subwoofer, so the receiver only runs my small surround sides and back. I think I have plenty of juice for that.

Newer movies have had a pretty good 7.1 surround setup, especially Disney movies. I'm an action movie person, but sometimes I have to entertain others and choose accordingly.

My gaming success is also vastly improved with the surround. Nothing like hearing someone coming up from your rear right while you duck and cover and spring a quick ambush.

kuntasensei · January 2012

csnoff wrote: »

Thanks for the replies once again guys. I do have limited space as my couch is up against the back wall so there really isnt the room for the full surround effect. I think I will try and have it setup so that I am running a 5.1 with the FXiA4's as the rears. Question on that though. If they are placed to either the left and right side of the couch a little above ear level should I be in Bi-pole mode or Di-pole mode?

Also one other thing do you think it would be worth it to run the m20's as presence speakers up at the front? where would they be normally placed in this case?

Well, if you're running 5.1, the surrounds are supposed to be ON THE SIDES, not the back wall. There are no rear surrounds in 5.1 unless you just don't have anywhere else to put them.

The quick answer on dipole/bipole is: if they're on the side walls, dipole... back wall, bipole (because you're not sitting in the null between the two faces of the speaker).

5.1 or 7.1?

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