7.1 channel issues..
Seth=L said:
It occurs to me that it is quite strange you would be against 7.1, especially since you started a thread about how much impact a center channel makes.
...first let me apologize to the OP for taking us off topic from his original question...
...with respect to center channels...I like the current 5.1 surround formats...DD, DTS, DVA-a, SACD. Some recordings are exploiting the format really well...like the new Beatle "Love". Keep in mind, I'm playing the 'devil's advocate' raising some things that I think need some good answers. I have 7.1...didn't go out and buy it but demoted my speaker sets one by one as I up graded with Klipsch RF-7 front, RC-7 center, RF-5 surround, and my old Def-tech BP-6 towers in the back (Yamaha RX-V2600).
...when I was starting to really hear some good playback quality, I became more aware of the often poor quality of the surround presentation in too many products. I worry that the focus of too many recordings may by-pass developing good surround sound products in rushing to push out gimmick products just to hear in multi-channel formats. I think too many listeners buy the 'sizzle' of wattage and channel numbers. Can't you see HT in boxes with more and more cubes?...like "tribbles" in Star Trek...they keep on growing!
And yet, too many HT users are having trouble even setting up their 5.1. Some posters in another thread surmised that Roger Waters' producers didn't use the center channel for music ("in the flesh") for fear that home HT systems didn't have the playback quality for it...so they concentrated the presentation in just the front L&R. What happens when we get 7 channels?
I think the technology is fine...I worry about what there will be to play on it.
Thanks for letting me vent....and being around to respond to it.
Hope everyone is having a fine week-end.
Roger