7.1 or 5.1.2

[Bill A]

I have a Demon 7.2 AVR which supports atmos & DTS-X. How can I switch my speakers between 7.1 and 5.1.2?

 

[j_garcia]

Does your room support 7.1? Have room behind the listening position to have the rears behind and sides adjacent to the listening area? If not, 5.2.

 

[Bill A]

I have plenty of room. How can I switch between 7.1 for DTS-X and 5.1.2 for atmos?

 

[j_garcia]

Not exactly sure how one would do that. Probably tricky placement or two different configurations with switch boxes. You'd keep the .2 in both cases, only have to figure how to handle the height speakers vs. surrounds. Given the limited number of Atmos movies right now, I probably wouldn't all out invest in a full setup just for that, but that's me. I'd build the system in a way that it could later support it though.

My room is large enough for 7.1 and I even have more than enough speakers and I'm still 5.1 lol

 

[BlwnAway]

I have plenty of room. How can I switch between 7.1 for DTS-X and 5.1.2 for atmos?

First, are you running traditional 7.1 with rears? And where are your speakers? (Ear level, in-ceiling?)

While immersive audio formats will give you a slight improvement in audio quality with a traditional 7.1 channel layout due to a more discrete mix with some soundtracks, you'll need to incorporate some form of Height or Overhead speaker to get the best from the format. (Yes there are upfiring speakers and modules but they just don't work as well.)

 

[herbu]

How can I switch between 7.1 for DTS-X and 5.1.2 for atmos?

When you "switch", you're telling your AVR what signal to send. If you tell it 7.1, it will send the Rear Surround signals to those 2 speaker outputs. If you tell it Atmos, it will send the .2 Atmos Height signals to those same speaker outputs.

Your AVR doesn't know what speakers you have connected to those outputs. To truly "switch", you'll need a pair of speakers located behind you for 7.1, and another pair of speakers located above you for Atmos. To "switch", you'll have to tell the AVR what you want, and you'll need to connect the proper pair of speakers, whether it's by changing wires or with a switch box.

 

[rojo]

I'm with j_garcia. 5.1 is fine for me. Anything more just seems like the home theater version of a Gillette razor.

@Bill A : If you set your AVR surround mode to "Auto", wouldn't it auto switch based on the source format? Forcing a particular configuration sounds like a virtual surround mode to me. At least on my AVR, the source determines the playback configuration. I would imagine it ought to be similar with a DTS-X / Atmos capable AVR, although I've never played with one.

 

[afterlife2]

5.1 and maybe later 7.1

 

[Bill A]

When you "switch", you're telling your AVR what signal to send. If you tell it 7.1, it will send the Rear Surround signals to those 2 speaker outputs. If you tell it Atmos, it will send the .2 Atmos Height signals to those same speaker outputs.

Your AVR doesn't know what speakers you have connected to those outputs. To truly "switch", you'll need a pair of speakers located behind you for 7.1, and another pair of speakers located above you for Atmos. To "switch", you'll have to tell the AVR what you want, and you'll need to connect the proper pair of speakers, whether it's by changing wires or with a switch box.

 

[Bill A]

If I use speaker switch box exactly how would I set up the box. I really don't want to switch cables in my AVR.

 

[Don Wrighter]

If I use speaker switch box exactly how would I set up the box. I really don't want to switch cables in my AVR.

You would have speaker cables running from the back surrounds on the receiver running to a 4 channel a/b switch box. Both the rear surrounds and the ceiling height speaker would be wired into the switch box. You'd then have to reassign the speakers from back to height through the AVR setup and switch the speakers on the box when you want to go from one to the other. A lot of work. I'd just do 5.2.2 and let the receiver do upmixing on on-height sources.

 

[Bill A]

You would have speaker cables running from the back surrounds on the receiver running to a 4 channel a/b switch box. Both the rear surrounds and the ceiling height speaker would be wired into the switch box. You'd then have to reassign the speakers from back to height through the AVR setup and switch the speakers on the box when you want to go from one to the other. A lot of work. I'd just do 5.2.2 and let the receiver do upmixing on on-height sources.