5.1 speakers w/7.1 receiver

[robinfl]

Years ago I bought the following speakers and receiver for my home theater setup.
Speakers: Klipsch KSF-10.5 fronts, KSF-S5 surrounds, KSF-C5 center, and a KSW-15 subwoofer, (all discontinued now).
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V795

The room size is 19' X 22' on an open floor plan that continues into the kitchen area, so there is no back wall for speakers. My surrounds are located on the side walls inline with the listener. At the time I paid quite a bit for the set up and I am happy with the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Now I see if I want to replace my receiver with a newer one they are all for the most part 7.1. If I bought a 7.1 receiver and only hooked up my five speakers and subwoofer, it would be all right and still sound good, I would just be missing out on the effects the back surrounds create. Is this correct?

 

[Doug917]

That is correct. You should get better sound from a newer receiver of the same price range (newer processing and improved DACs, etc). However, some of the newer processing requires the back channels to work (DDPL2x,DD EX, etc). If you dont have a wall in back or the speakers would be in the way on the floor, you could always look into some ceiling speakers and point them down towards the listening position.

 

[mike c]

you can specify on the 7.1 receiver that you only have a 5.1 setup, and you wont be missing anything (compared with what you have now)

but then again, if you dont have plans on adding speakers, why upgrade?

 

[jcPanny]

On some 7.1 receivers you can run 5.1 and assign the extra 2 amp channels to power zone 2 speakers on the patio or in another room.

 

[trevorgray]

Or, depending on the reciever, you could have front presence speakers.