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7.1 or 5.1 setup need help

post #1 of 6
2/4/10 at 3:57pm
Thread Starter 
quick couple of questions:

I have chinese drywall in florida and my builder is tearing down my home and building it again from scratch... I currently have 5.1 system with speakercraft AIM 8 three speakers in ceiling. The center channel is not in ceiling and sits above my TV. this is not a media room, but a family room.. We watch alot of high def programming via direct TV. we do watch a fair amount of movies via Blu-ray....

Since i have the opportunity, i will be installing sound enclosures for my in ceiling speakers.

Question 1. is there an advantage to upgrading to a 7.1 system.. I have denon receiver that can handle a 7.1 system... I never thought about a 7.1 system before, not sure why i didn't.. Would that still be good for watching regular tv programming.. OR is a 7.1 system mainly for movies... Are blu-rays and tv programming outputting for 7.1 systems, or are they mainly outputting for 5.1 systems....

Any help would be appreciated, along with any scetches for placement of inceiling speakers for 5.1 and 7.1 system.. thanks again.. i may have more questions depending on your responses...
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post #2 of 6
2/5/10 at 5:39am
When I had my house wired, it was wired for 7.1.  I had a 7.1 system for a while, though I had no "native" 7.1 sources (unless you count the 6.1 DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX formats).  I went back to 5.1 because 7.1 was too distracting in the rear soundfield.  I like 5.1 with dipoles better than 7.1 in my room.  I say wire for 7.1 in case you want to try it.
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post #3 of 6
2/5/10 at 11:20am
I have a 7.1 setup, and like it very much. If the two rear speakers are too distracting, they may not be calibrated right, and may be too loud. Afterall, they're mainly for ambient sounds.

The only 7.1 sources are some blu ray movies, such as Hellboy II and The Golden Compass. With those, since they are mixed for 7.1, it's a little more than ambient sound from the rears, but still enjoyable, to me anyway. I guess it's subjective like a lot of other HT stuff. I'm hoping many more movies will have 7.1 soundtracks.

Since your receiver is a 7.1 receiver, it probably has the option of Dolby Pro Logic IIx? The IIx will take a stereo and 5.1 signal, and stretch it to a 7.1 output. I have my receiver set to IIx for tv watching. I like it. Some commercials are better than the tv programming, for 7.1 sound. For blu rays and dvds that are 5.1, I listen in 5.1, so the rears just sit there with no sound from them.

Sorry, but I have no ideas for in-ceiling speakers. I, personally, don't like them, so I've never given any thoughts to them for any reason. Again, one of those subjective things.
Good luck!
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post #4 of 6
2/5/10 at 12:15pm
Thread Starter 
so for Dolby Pro Logic IIx, do i still use the 5.1 setup and change it on the receiver, or do i need the 7.1 setup...
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post #5 of 6
2/5/10 at 2:42pm
Dolby Pro Logic II is for 5.1, and Pro Logic IIx is for 7.1 surround.
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post #6 of 6
2/6/10 at 5:29am
Just to clarify, you don't need a 7.1 speaker system for DPL IIx, although you won't be taking full advantage of it.

DPL IIx is a superset of DPL II. If you have only a 5.1 speaker system, it does a fine job of expanding two channel stereo into 5 channels.

If you upgrade to 7.1 speakers, it'll  expand both stereo and 5.1 soundtracks into the additional rear-surround speakers.
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