Is 6.1 worth it for me????? (1 Viewer)

[Blaine_M]

Here's my setup, I've got B&W fronts, rears and center with an Energy sub and a Marantz 5400 receiver. I've been debating the addition of the rear center my main problem is the room. My house has a family room that opens up to a dinette, which then turns into the kitchen, seems to be popular these days. The only way I can wire this is to put an in ceiling speaker directly above my main listening point which is right between my two rears. I was looking at the Paradigm CCM60 I think is the model because it has two tweeters that fire in different directions. Anyway, my question is this....is it worth it? Should I add the rear center or not. I've played with a small bookshelf speaker back there, but it is hard go guage how much of a difference it will be with it in the ceiling.......oh yes, forgot to add that the Paradigm can bought one at a time, another part of the reason I was looking at that speaker.

 

[John Garcia]

I have the same issue with my setup. In my previous place, I had 6.1 and was pretty impressed with it, but since I have nowhere to put a rear center(s), I just stayed 5.1 and I have no complaints. I think the deciding factor would be how hard will it be to run the wires? If you are going to do it, wire for 7.1 just because you don't want to do this again.

 

[Blaine_M]

It wouldn't be that difficult to run the wires. The house is fairly new, and at the time I had an old stereo, and never even thought about 6.1 or 7.1. I ran the wire for the rears, but that was it. I'm tempted to do it, hopefully if I do it won't look too funny having that speaker in the ceiling. I listened to the Eagles Hell Freezes Over DVD last night and played with an old bookshelf speaker back there, I think it would sound good, but I had it sitting on a table way too close to me behind my couch.

 

[John Garcia]

Turn that rear speaker away from you (to the rear or up) and see how it sounds. In my 6.1 setup, with the speaker pointed at the listening position, I found it very necessary to calibrate properly, otherwise it either sounded like all the sound was coming from the center or like it wasn't there half the time.

 

[Blaine_M]

I'll try that next time I hook it up. If that's the case, and the only place I can put my rear center is directly above my listening position, then maybe I shouldn't mess with it. Unfortunately it's not like I can buy it and check it out very well without actually installing it. It does have two tweeters that point off to the sides of the speaker, so maybe that would help.

http://www.paradigm.com/Website/Site...CS_Series.html

 

[Ray Tsui]

I have in-wall speakers for my rears and I find it works reasonably well, and with the grill on, they blend in very nicely with my plain whiteish ceiling.

If I were doing again, I would go full 7.1, then you can take full advantage of Prologic IIx.

 

[Blaine_M]

I wish I could post a picture of my room, then my concerns might make more sense............My biggest concern is the sound, will it sound ok directly above my listening position, and there may not be any good way to determine that without actually installing it, once I do that it won't be coming out.

 

[John Garcia]

My friend recently completed his 7.1 HT with all in ceiling rears. He has 10' ceilings, and the rears are positiioned along side, and just behind the listening position, with the rears about 2 feet behind and closer to the center. It looks great and sounds very good.

I think a single ceiling speaker will look a bit odd, but it will probably work, you will simply have to calibrate and adjust to taste so that it blends in just right with the other surrounds. The dual tweeter arrangement should help as well.