what to do

[direstraitsfan98]

Hi guys

I have two speaker and two channel amp and preamp that also has ht bypass

my room is small 12x15

never felt like I needed a center channel even in movies

i do want surround sound tho.

what kind of setup should i do? dont think i need front sides or /wides/ as they are called i think.

should I go for two speakers on rear? so effectively i will do 4.0.0? i could add heights too. so atmos or something. going to add subs after i just want to get an idea what surround sound will be like in my room

so i need two more speaker and an avr right? mostly i want to listen to 5 channel sacd music.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes you'd need a surround processor, an avr or pre-pro (as well as a suitable SACD player). If you want full surround, particularly for movies, I'd get the center. I'd start with a 5.1 L/R/C with standard surrounds (which are more to the sides) rather than all five up front with wides (if the processor supports such) perhaps with front heights if you have a Dolby PLIIz processor. Quite a few multichannel SACDs are based on old quad (4.0) recordings, fwiw.

 

[direstraitsfan98]

are you saying I need a surround processor and an avr or pre-pro? what do you mean 'rather than all five up front with wides' i never intended to put 5 speakers in the front of me. getting a avr that handles atmos or heights is no problem

 

[lovinthehd]

are you saying I need a surround processor and an avr or pre-pro? what do you mean 'rather than all five up front with wides' i never intended to put 5 speakers in the front of me. getting a avr that handles atmos or heights is no problem

If you want amps built into the unit it would be an avr with suitable processing capabilities, if a pre-pro then you'd need your own separate amps. The processor is required in either to process or upmix to surround sound formats (5.1 being a minimum generally, some pre-recorded content is available in 7.1 as well as the newer Atmos formats).

Front Wides were a specific format available thru some upmixers like the Dolby one I mentioned. They would go to the outsides of the left and right speakers, one of my avrs can do that in either 7.1 or 9.1 formats. Front Height was a 7.1 alternative to rear surrounds before Atmos (and could use in a 9.1 on that same avr). There are various ways to do it. Surrounds are part of the basic 5.1 format and generally placed to the sides and perhaps slightly to the rear, often elevated a bit. Rear Surrounds came into play with the 7.1 format.

AVRs generally have Atmos these days rather than just basic 5.1/7.1 formats.

That help?

 

[direstraitsfan98]

yes, extremely helpful, thanks. i like the idea of getting a second amplifier maybe a 3 channel one, it will power the center, and two rears. I will do a 5.0 system I guess. then, I will get a pre/pro not sure what one but I will get one, and I assume run its analog outputs to my new amp.

what I have a question is when I do this, for my two main left and right speakers, do I run my stereo preamp before the pre/pro and run the output of my pre/pro to my main stereo amp, or the opposite, do I run the pre/pro into the stereo preamp. I assume in both scenarios I enable the 'home theater bypass' toggle that it has

it makes a lot of sense that sacd recordings tend to be 4channel since dont see why a center channel is needed for music recordings. movies it makes sense because of dialogues.

 

[lovinthehd]

yes, extremely helpful, thanks. i like the idea of getting a second amplifier maybe a 3 channel one, it will power the center, and two rears. I will do a 5.0 system I guess. then, I will get a pre/pro not sure what one but I will get one, and I assume run its analog outputs to my new amp.

what I have a question is when I do this, for my two main left and right speakers, do I run my stereo preamp before the pre/pro and run the output of my pre/pro to my main stereo amp, or the opposite, do I run the pre/pro into the stereo preamp. I assume in both scenarios I enable the 'home theater bypass' toggle that it has

it makes a lot of sense that sacd recordings tend to be 4channel since dont see why a center channel is needed for music recordings. movies it makes sense because of dialogues.

The quad thing was mostly from that generation of recording. Multich recording has really never taken hold in the larger sense. I love my multich recordings but there's not as large a choice as I'd like. The ones truly made for 5.1 etc like Steven Wilson does...it's a start.

Your stereo thing with bypass etc I'll leave you to figure out, sounds more like something that just gets in the way and is not necessary.

 

[lovinthehd]

yes, extremely helpful, thanks. i like the idea of getting a second amplifier maybe a 3 channel one, it will power the center, and two rears. I will do a 5.0 system I guess. then, I will get a pre/pro not sure what one but I will get one, and I assume run its analog outputs to my new amp.

what I have a question is when I do this, for my two main left and right speakers, do I run my stereo preamp before the pre/pro and run the output of my pre/pro to my main stereo amp, or the opposite, do I run the pre/pro into the stereo preamp. I assume in both scenarios I enable the 'home theater bypass' toggle that it has

it makes a lot of sense that sacd recordings tend to be 4channel since dont see why a center channel is needed for music recordings. movies it makes sense because of dialogues.

You do realize that 2ch stereo is a different beast than multich surround? It's not simply more speakers connected?

 

[lovinthehd]

Maybe this can be a start https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surround_sound