Dolby Pro Logic IIz's height speakers and Audyssey DSX's height and/or width speakers are absolutely not worth the cost and effort of adding two or four additional speakers to your front speaker setup in my opinion.
I'm short on time here, but I wanted to post quickly. Every review that I have read, albeit not many, seem to be positive. The first here to use it was rmk, and my interest was piqued ever since, as he's got an insane system, and yet he thought it was a significant improvement.
You say that you can't really hear anything worth while from traditional 7.1 surround back speakers? Well you'd hear even less from the height/width speakers.
This seems logical if you don't think the rears are worth anything. I'm glad I have mine!
Instead, take whatever money you would have spent on additional speakers and amplifiers and speaker wire and mounts/stands and put those funds into room treatments instead!
Sounds smart, but some people already had 20-40 treatments when they went with DSX.
Here's the thing, there is no content that is actually recorded in a format to make use of the height or width speakers. It's all just post-processing and guess work. If you have your front L/R and surround speakers set up properly, they will perfectly recreate any of the wider information that those DSX width speakers are meant to create. And there is no height information present in any recordings, so the height channels are complete fabrications. Not only that, but your surround speakers are meant to be placed 2-3 feet above seated height, meaning that you already get height information from the discrete surround speakers!
I think to say that matrixing algorithms are like guesswork is a bit unfair. PLII, PLIIX, L7, they are/were accepted and used in many situations, from low end to high end. Some people DO have a big "hole" between their main speakers and surround. Way too many people, including AHers have their stereo speakers just too close to each other.
It's just a gimmick. Another check box on the spec sheet for receivers and another excuse to cram in even more unnecessary amplifier channels while simultaneously decreasing the quality of those amps. Receiver manufacturers just want more and more features so that they can make consumers feel like there is a reason to buy a new receiver every year. And the speaker manufacturers are fine with anything that packs more speakers into our already over-crowded rooms too!
I disagree that it's just a gimmick.
Quite frankly, if your front L/R speakers are good and set up properly, we don't even need center speakers. But pretty much everyone has bought into the fallacy that "the center speaker is the most important in a surround sound setup". Really? It's the most important? Then why don't we need a center speaker for stereo music, where we still manage to create an extremely convincing center image?
Actually someone super smart was recently saying that "stereo" actually was indeed first designed with a center channel, but that it was practicality that dropped the center channel. If I read it here, it must have been TLS Guy or Swerd if I had to guess. Maybe I will PM TLS Guy later on.
If you have a discrete center channel, and decide to reroute it to the mains, you suffer compression. Period.
Focus on getting good front L/R speakers and positioning them correctly. Spend money on good acoustic room treatments and place them properly too. Get a GREAT subwoofer (or better yet, 2 or 4 subwoofers), place them carefully and decouple them. Then add two diffuse surround speakers and place them correctly - which is something that so few people do!
Not everyone agrees with your use of diffuse surrounds, take a look at the dipolar/bipolar thread in the DIY section for example.
Add a center speaker if any seating location in your theater is WAY off center - so far that your good, properly positioned L/R speakers cannot maintain a convincing center image in that location.
Add surround back speakers if you have a lot of distance from the back of your seat to the back wall (greater than 5 feet) - otherwise, just the two surround speakers - properly placed - are just fine.
Don't worry about height or width speakers. If we get a discrete surround format that actually makes use of them, then MAYBE I will consider them as a fun addition. But as it stands, we barely have any 7.1 recordings and that standard has been around for several years now! 5.1 is really all you need to worry about. And even with 5.1 the center speaker is only necessary if your L/R speakers fail to create a convincing center image for some reason.
Actually, we have
hundreds of blurays recorded in 7.1.
Have you read about Iosono? Last I read about it, it was at 348.8, but I'm pretty sure they've expanded since then. The use it at the Chinese Mann I believe, among other higher tech theaters. Herbie Hancock loves it. FilmMixer says that the rainforest demo doesn't just sound like rain all around you, it also sounds like its hitting your own two shoulders.
