7.1 or 6.2 which is better? (1 Viewer)

[Ottis Fletcher]

I just bought a new home theater, it comes with 6.1 surround sound out of the box. Now I have the option to buy a 4th surround speaker or a rear sub woofer. Im not really sure which one to get. Im thinking 7.1 because it seems more common and will be supported by DVDs in the future. What do you think?

 

[Matthew Anderson]

Ottis,
That is really hard to say. It kind of depends on the size of your room and the kind of subwoofer you get. If your sub is adequate then an extra surround speaker would be nice but if you go with a sub like SVS then that could be a better choice.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

What is this "home theater" that you purchased?

 

[Ned]

No such thing as 7.1 (yet and for awhile)

Rear subs are a bad idea, better to have 1 or 2 really good subs in one location only.

 

[Nick L]

Why are rear subs a bad idea?

 

[Ottis Fletcher]

I got the Pioneer htp-720dv
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pi...,32415,00.html

 

[LaMarcus]

Why are rear subs a bad idea?

I was wondering the same thing. I have a rear sub and love it, it seems to envelope me in the sound. Should it not be back there?

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Low bass waves produced by a sub are very large and do not act the same way higher frequencies. Normal speakers don't have this problem because higher frequencies are smaller and more directional. So when you have 2 sources of deep bass, the waves are going to collide. How and where they collide will produce crazy effects. Theoritacally, if you have 2 subs in opposite corners playing at exactly the same time, the bass waves would meet in the middle, collide, and cancel each other out making no sound at all in the dead center. And then all the places where it bounces off the walls and meets again will cause many hot and cold spots in the room.

 

[LaMarcus]

So would you say it is cool to have the subs where the front L and R speakers are, or have both on the Left or both on the right?

 

[BrianWoerndle]

"So would you say it is cool to have the subs where the front L and R speakers are, or have both on the Left or both on the right?"

There is no perfect answer for that because every room is different. But generally 2 subs in the same location are prefered. You will generally get about 3db more gain and go a little lower.

You can experiment with different placements. With some tweaking almost any placement could work.

 

[mike_frontier]

I ran 2 pwr subs at one time (front and rear of living room) and if one of the Amps on the pwr sub has an PULSE switch turn it one and I say you'd be fine. Mine sounded great.

Oh nice receiver
VSX-D811S, I almost got one but the black one.

Good Luck and let us know how those speakers sound.

Mike

 

[Ottis Fletcher]

It sounds great, especially DVDs encoded with 6.1, like Gladiator, LOTR Extended, Seven, etc. It really adds another dimension to the sound field. Now if some DVDs would be encoded with true 7.1 surround I could hook up another speaker. I have a sub from old surround (Sony DAV-S500 Dream Theater) Its only 80 watts, but I might hook it up some night to see how it sounds.