New guy with a 7.1 question for you all. (1 Viewer)

[Dan Keliikoa]

Hello all you fine folk! This is my first post here, but I've been aware of this great site for some time now.

Before I get to my question, here is a quick rundown of my gear: B&K AVR507 (on the way!), Sony prog. scan DVD player, Mits 55" widescreen, M&K S125 (main l/r), M&K S100B (center), M&K MX150II sub, M&K SS150 surrounds (will be adding another pair of the SS150s for back surrounds soon).

So, I'm looking forward to adding the B&K to my system (replacing my Sony STRDA50ES) and adding the back surrounds to my system. My question is, do you folk that have 6.1/7.1 systems always have your back surrounds on, even during 5.1 movies? I understand the B&K will send information to the back channels on 5.1 material; does it sound good, or is it just a distraction?

Obviously, I'm hoping that it's cool so I can enjoy all of my movies with the back speakers engaged Would like to hear your opinions on the matter, and thanks!

Cheers,
Dan

 

[ricky ho]

Hey Dan
I leave 7.1 on all the time and yes in my opinion it's cool. I enjoy it with dvd's and cable movies. My pre/pro is a Outlaw 950. Good luck

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Dan,

I've had a 7.1 setup with a Pioneer VSX45TX for a couple of months now.

As you know, if you force EX or DTS-ES processing on by setting rear surrounds to on, the rear surrounds will produce a matrixed rear center effect.

This is much the same as the way a Pro-Logic decoder will produce a surround effect from all 2 channel sources, not just those with Pro Logic coding.

It works quite well with my setup and I leave it on all the time. The rear center effect on many of my 5.1 non-EX dvds is very convincing indeed. Sounds often pan across the rear soundfield very effectively, and I also often hear stuff like airplanes and choppers seem to pan directly from front to the back surrounds.

I am very happy with the effect produced from 5.1 sources. This really adds life to many of my discs, and negates the idea that you have to use one of the limited number of EX or ES encoded discs to derive a benefit from the 6.1 or 7.1 gear.

My setup will even force back surround activity with DPLII stuff. I watched Tomb Raider in plain 2 channel format off my DirecTV dish, and with DPLII and the rear surrounds on got a very convincing 6.1 effect.

 

[Dan Keliikoa]

Cool...this is what I was hoping to hear I'm even more excited about this upgrade, now! Thank you for your responses so far.