"Surround" & "Surround Back" speakers; which have more impact?

[videobruce]

I'm looking for a new receiver (from a Pro Logic only model) that has a zone 2 option. Most receivers seem to use the "Surrong Back" speakers outputs for the zone 2 speakers. With a 4.0 system (yes, 4.0), what would I loose with using the "Surround" outs vs the "Surround Back" outs?

IOWs', which set of outputs have the most impact? (I do understand it also depends on how the orginal material was mixed etc.)

 

[AVRat]

With very few exceptions currently, the surround amps are used for multi-channel use only, while only the surround-back amps are capable of multi-zone use. Depending on the receiver, most surround channel amps are identical. Most of the popular receivers from Denon, Pioneer, Marantz, Yamaha, and others will fit your needs. Budget, room size, features, speaker setup info will help with advice.

 

[videobruce]

With a 4.0 setup, are the "Surround" or "Surround Back" speaker outs used??

 

[j_garcia]

Surround back are only in use in a 6.1/7.1 setup, for anything less than that, they are disabled thus allowing the amps to be assigned to another zone.

 

[jcPanny]

Speaker connections

Bruce,
A 5.1 setup requires mains, center, surrounds(on the sides), and a sub. The surround back speakers are added for 7.1. When you get a new receiver, add a center and sub to get a 5.1 system.

All DVDs have a 5.1 Dodby or DTS soundtrack. A few have a 6.1 Dolby or DTS "EX" soundtrack. Your receiver can matrix 5.1, 6.1, or even 2.0 material to use all 5-7 speakers. The surrounds are necessary and the surround back speakers are optional.

 

[videobruce]

Ok, understood. I'm just comming from Dolby & Dolby Pro Logic SS and all they had were 'rear' speakers (or so they were called).

 

[MDS]

In the ProLogic days, the surround speakers were just called rear speakers. Now that we have 7.1 (using a matrix decoder like PLII) there is a need to distinguish between the surround speakers for 5.1 and the additional two surround speakers for 7.1.

The correct terminology is 'side surrounds' (sometimes just labeled 'surround' on a receiver) for the surround speakers for 5.1 and 'rear surrounds' for the surround speakers behind you for 7.1.

That terminology makes more sense because the side surrounds are ideally placed to your sides (between 90 and 100 degrees from the listening position) and the rear surrounds are idealy placed behind you.

 

[j_garcia]

Yep. Your former "rear" surrounds in a 7.1 setup would become the side surrounds and the "back" surrounds are the additional ones in the new formats (Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES).