back channels or maybe not?

[im timmy]

<font color='#A8A8A8'>Hello everyone, just lookin for some advice and opinions. I recently bought a 7 channel receiver (rxv2400). Like many family rooms mine is not setup for &quot;ideal&quot; surrround sound. 17'x19' and a 20' ceiling with large windows. I would like to take advantage of the 2 back center channels for effects. My problem is with limited space my couch sits rite up on the back wall opposite the projection tv. The 2 corner rears are basically rite up on the sitting area, so if I added rear centers I would be rite up on those as well. My salesman has advised not to add rear centers given my listening position. He explains that the center rears would just drown out the corner surrounds and possibly make the effects sound worse. My installer has told me the same. Can anyone advise me of sound quality from experience. I know I'm not the only one with a hard to setup family room for movie going. I just figured since the back channels are only effect speakers it can't hurt my movie listening experience. Anyone have any suggestions or opinions?</font>

 

[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>Having tried the rear center speakers on my Z-1, IMHO all I can tell you is that you gain some ambience in dialogs on certain movies but nothing to justify the logistical problems of putting up a rear center, the MATRIX rear channel mode on the Yamaha receivers works wonderfuly, just follow Yamaha's advice on the location of rear speakers and you will be quite impressed.</font>

 

[im timmy]

<font color='#A8A8A8'>thanks for replying yamahaluver. I to don't know if it is worth the trouble of setting up speakers for the rear if I will only be getting limited sound. I'm going to try setting up some older klipsch bookshelfs and wire them above the flooring. At least I will be able to see what I get before I invest in more effect speakers. what do you think about hooking up the presence channels? I do have the room for that, will I enjoy some more effects with that setup?

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[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>The presence I highly reccomend, since the days of DSP A1000 these presence is what made Yamaha sound better in DSP mode and therefore I thorougly reccomend them, one word of advice if I amy, make sure you get all mathcing front and rears as well as centers and mains to get seamless blending and great surround experience.</font>

 

[im timmy]

<font color='#A8A8A8'>

Yamahaluver, will I get ambient effects from the presence if regular DD5.1 or DTS is just used? Or do I have to select certain dsp modes off my yam2400, or does it just depend on the discs format and how it was recorded? thanks

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[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>The front presence are engaged when Yamaha's DSP modes are engaged regardless of the software used, for instance if you watch a DTS movie and engage one of the Cinema DSP modes like Adventure, the front presence will be engaged, the beauty of the front presence is that it transfers all the effects to them instead of the main speakers thereby giving you a bigger envelope as well as preserving the sound from the mains.</font>

 

[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>The front presence channels are actually based on algorithm. Effects can never be totally separated from the main channels unless you have an M&amp;E mix.

Regardless, the presence channels significantly widen the soundstage in my opinion.

As for rear centers - listen to all the advice you are getting and don't bother unless you plan on moving your listening position forward.</font>

 

[im timmy]

<font color='#A8A8A8'>thanks for the replies fellas. I am going to try the presence and pass on the rear centers for now. My next ? is how important do the presence speakers become if they are in use. I can match them up with the rest of my cantons, should I try a larger bookshelf with a wall mount. Or should I match the same size bookshelves as the rear corners, which are 1 size smaller than their largest. Room size is approx. 16'x19', 20' ceiling, my front mains are le109 floorstandings. &nbsp;

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[Yamahaluver]

<font color='#0000FF'>The presence can be smaller than your rears, for instance in my case Yamaha reccomends the NS-90 for presence and NS-100 for rears.</font>