Do I need a 7.1 speaker system ?

[satwar]

I currently have a 5.1 speaker system in a small TV room, which I set up in 1993. My Prologic receiver (Sony STR-GX99ES) is getting a little long in the tooth and I'm looking to upgrade to a 7.1 A/V receiver.

The 5.1 speaker selection and placement in the room was dictated by the requirements of functional furniture, closet location, and room entrance, the antithesis of an ideal audiophile dream room. The room dimensions are 100" height x 110" deep x 143" wide with the room entrance being off-centre on one of the 143 " wide walls. The listening position is on a couch centered on the other 143 " wide wall opposite the room entrance. The TV and A/V equipment is in an entertainment centre armoire, centered on the 143" wide room entrance wall beside the room entrance.

The 5.1 speaker system consists of Mirage M-190 bookshelf speakers for front & surround positions, Mirage MCC-R centre channel position and Mirage PS-12-90 for subwoofer.

The bookshelf speakers, wall mounted about 1 foot below the ceiling. The front speakers are ~2 feet from each side of the room and angled towards centre of opposite 143" wide wall and aimed down to the listening position. Surrounds are mounted on the 110" long side walls ~1 foot from the back 143" wide wall and aimed down to the listening position.

The centre channel speaker is mounted on top of entertainment armoire and aimed down towards listening position.

The subwoofer is to the side of entertainment armoire along the 143" room entrance wall, almost in the corner.

How should I upgrade to 7.1 speaker placement, or not bother at all ? In theory I should be adding back surrounds, behind the listening position for 7.1 speaker configuration. Of course I can't do that because the wall is behind the listening position. Does it make sense to install surrounds above the listening position or am I just wasting my money ? Should I simply let the 7.1 receiver matrix the sound down to 5.1 speakers ?

 

[MDS]

You don't have to have 7.1 speakers for a 7.1 receiver. In the setup menu for the receiver you indicate which speakers are present. There are no 7.1 discrete formats so the only way to actually get 7.1 is to use a matrix decoder like PLIIx. If you indicate you only have 5.1 speakers, PLIIx won't even be available to select.

A 7.1 receiver though may still be useful as many of them have Zone 2 features that allow you to have the full 5.1 in one zone and stereo in zone 2 at the same time.

Given that you'd have to place the rear speakers directly on the wall behind you I don't think 7.1 would buy you anything unless you opted for in-ceiling speakers for the rear surrounds.

 

[satwar]

You don't have to have 7.1 speakers for a 7.1 receiver. In the setup menu for the receiver you indicate which speakers are present. There are no 7.1 discrete formats so the only way to actually get 7.1 is to use a matrix decoder like PLIIx. If you indicate you only have 5.1 speakers, PLIIx won't even be available to select.

A 7.1 receiver though may still be useful as many of them have Zone 2 features that allow you to have the full 5.1 in one zone and stereo in zone 2 at the same time.

Given that you'd have to place the rear speakers directly on the wall behind you I don't think 7.1 would buy you anything unless you opted for in-ceiling speakers for the rear surrounds.

Yes, I'm aware that except for a PS3 game, there are no 7.1 discrete sources right now. It seems, however, that the receiver market is moving to processing of up to 8 channels PCM over HDMI so I'm hoping to future proof my new receiver equipment by at least this measure.

Interesting that you mention in-ceiling speakers as offering some potential audio enhancement for my situation. I assume the reasoning behind the in-ceiling design would be to radiate sound down to the listening position. Is there such a thing as wall mounted, downward radiating back surround speakers, that may give the same effect ? Surely I'm not the only one with their listening position up against the wall. But then again most surround speaker sets I've seen are 5.1 not 7.1, so perhaps the problem I'm trying to solve is not main stream enough yet. It may take some killer 7.1 source material to kick start the evolution to mainstream 7.1 speaker configurations.

 

[MDS]

In-ceiling is an option but not likely a good one. I asked for opinions on that very thing in another thread because I was contemplating using them for the rears of 7.1 too.

I don't know of any wall mounted, downward firing speakers but if you have to place the rear surrounds on the wall directly behind you a viable option could be di-pole or bi-pole speakers. Di-pole fire sound in two different directions but the speakers are out of phase (one is moving in while the other is moving out) whereas bi-pole also fire in two different directions but the speakers are in-phase.

If you had bi-poles on the wall behind you, they would be firing to your left and right instead of down from the ceiling (in-ceiling) or right at you (normal 'monopole' speakers). That might be a reasonable choice and I think I would choose bi-poles over in-ceiling.

 

[satwar]

Something like the Axiom QS4 or QS 8, with the quadpolar design might work then ? They even have a downward firing driver, although all drivers operate in phase rather than out of phase.

 

[MDS]

Yes, I would think the QS4/QS8 would work well.

 

[satwar]

Thanks for your time and patience MDS, your comments were most helpful. I guess the only question remains is whether I will get a benifit worth the price of these surrounds ?

 

[MDS]

If it were me facing your decision, I would forego 7.1 and stick with 5.1. There isn't a whole lot of information sent to the rear surrounds so to truly get the benefit you'd probably need the rear surrounds placed well behind you.