Surround Speaker Setup

[indulger]

I am currently in the process of converting my living room into a semi home theater. Semi meaning: WAF. She is allowing me to setup a 7.1 system, however, One of her stipulations is that I cannot have rear surrounds. I have to place both surround speakers on each side of the room, but nothing hanging in the back. To me it is not a big deal, it seems like it would be like a theater. Just looking for some opinions on movie playback. Has anyone done this and do they think it sounds ok. Reason i'm asking, is because if it does not, then I am not going to bother with the 7.1 just use 5.1 and hang the extra speakers on the back porch as a zone 2 setup.
Thanks in advance for any opinions.

 

[lsiberian]

I am currently in the process of converting my living room into a semi home theater. Semi meaning: WAF. She is allowing me to setup a 7.1 system, however, One of her stipulations is that I cannot have rear surrounds. I have to place both surround speakers on each side of the room, but nothing hanging in the back. To me it is not a big deal, it seems like it would be like a theater. Just looking for some opinions on movie playback. Has anyone done this and do they think it sounds ok. Reason i'm asking, is because if it does not, then I am not going to bother with the 7.1 just use 5.1 and hang the extra speakers on the back porch as a zone 2 setup.
Thanks in advance for any opinions.

It's usually hard to determine what's best in a given environment without some clue of how it's arranged. If your seating is on the backwall then it's best to have the a single pair lined up at an angle in front of you. If not.

Two surrounds wired in Parallel to the side surround channel would be very effective.

 

[indulger]

Don't cringe please! Would you define "wired in parallel
FYI:
AVR in question is a Denon 4310
Surround Speakers are (4) Ascend HTM 200SE's

8 ohm speakers

 

[sholling]

Just go with a 5.1 system. Most of the content of movies is in 5.1 anyway. However you might want to go with bipolar surrounds for a more diffuse effect.

 

[chadburger]

As to your wire question he means both sets of speakers will be wired to same output so 4 speakers would do the same job that 2 can do. I would say if your room to begin with isnt 20+ feet go with 5.1, also if your seat is against wall go with 5.1. But if your couch is not on rear wall place the middle surround speakers in line with couch and place the rears a few feet behind your seat.............but rear wall is always most ideal.
The diploe idea is a good one, its a speaker that will put out sound in up to 3 directions vs a standard speaker that just outputs sound from its front baffle.

 

[tedi055]

5.1 is the answer

I think chadburger put it best, go with the 5.1 set up.

 

[j_garcia]

I was 6.1 previously, but went back to 5.1 due to room limitations in my new place. I can't say that I miss it. A properly setup 5.1 system can give you just as much enjoyment and rather than "cluge" a 7.1 system together just to say you have 7.1, you could have a correctly setup 5.1 system.

 

[indulger]

I have 5 ft behind my seating area, just can't hang speakers on that wall (wife) back there. I have 9 ft of wall on each side, with a (L) shaped sectional in the middle. Thats why I figured I could get away with having 2 sets of side surrounds along the length. I liked Isiberian's ideal about parallel wiring. I looked up the definition of parallel speaker wiring and my only questions is. Will a Denon 4310 be able to handle the load playing 2 sets of speakers on the surround channels.

Speakers are Ascend HTM 200SE's, 8ohm, sensitivity of 87db. I guess it would be a 4 ohm load for both sets of surrounds ran in parallel. However, Denon states only 6-8 ohm speakers. But in real life I know that avr's or amps sometimes can be pushed a bit more and since these are surrounds, will it push the avr as hard as the mains or center?

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Like everyone else said; go with 5.1. You will get way more out of the other two speakers in a zone 2 set up.

 

[markw]

Just go with your basic 5.1 setup.

Saying you can go 7.1 but you can't have the rear surrounds (which are separate, distinct channels) is like sayiny you're going stereo but with only one speaker.

As for the two identical surrounds on each side, that will kill the impact of some of the intended directional special effects.

 

[jostenmeat]

I have 5 ft behind my seating area, just can't hang speakers on that wall (wife) back there. I have 9 ft of wall on each side, with a (L) shaped sectional in the middle. Thats why I figured I could get away with having 2 sets of side surrounds along the length. I liked Isiberian's ideal about parallel wiring. I looked up the definition of parallel speaker wiring and my only questions is. Will a Denon 4310 be able to handle the load playing 2 sets of speakers on the surround channels.

Speakers are Ascend HTM 200SE's, 8ohm, sensitivity of 87db. I guess it would be a 4 ohm load for both sets of surrounds ran in parallel. However, Denon states only 6-8 ohm speakers. But in real life I know that avr's or amps sometimes can be pushed a bit more and since these are surrounds, will it push the avr as hard as the mains or center?

I will offer different input. It seems that some experts I trust are using rear speakers with a wider placement than what was typically done before. I think it may have to do with the fact that we finally have a true 7.1 available with bluray, whereas before it was a mono rear at best. In fact, I have been considering moving my rear surrounds further apart as well. Since you have 5ft behind you, and if you can get them to be close to 135 degrees, I personally would do it.

Even if that's not possible, you can still do a 7.1 with a different technology. Look into DSX with width speakers. You get the widths at about 60 degrees. The CTO of Audyssey thinks the widths offer a better bang for buck than the heights, though it seems that most people who can fit in a 9.1 have more height available than the necessary width. Of course, there are those who go full blown 11.1 DSX as well. Here is how a 7.1 DSX with widths is placed.

edit: btw, most of the current Denon lineup can do 7.1 DSX . . .