5.1 Surround works fine, Do I really need 6.1 or 7.1

[mguy]

I see a lot of AV receivers on the market with 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound.

Yet, when I check the back of the disc packaging in the store, all I find, is that it is recorded in Dolby or DTS 5.1 .

Is there any advantage to upgrading now ?

[thedelihaus]

There's very little 6.1 recordings out there, and so far, no 7.1. The 6.1 units add a single rear channel to the 5.1 systems, and really sound great, if the film is so equipped with such a soundtrack, and the 7.1 takes that single rear channel added by that 6.1 system and splits it in two.

I don't see any huge advantage at this time.

Just my opinion.

[jlindsey86]

It really depends on how large your room is. Denons new 5805 will actually do 9.1 but in most cases no one is going to use that. As thedelihaus stated, the standard is 5.1 with DD and DTS. Unless you have a really big room and are just curious I would stay with 5.1

[JimmyNeutron]

Do you really need 6.1 or 7.1? That's like asking if you really need to buy that new car when your current one drives just fine. Thedelihaus is right about the limited availability of 6.1 and non-existence of 7.1. But to expand, there are many 6.1 titles being released every month and will continue to be released. 7.1 as a DVD format comes from DVD-HD and Blue Ray, not from the regular DVD's. When you upgrade to HD DVD or Blue Ray (and at some point you will) you will need 6.1 and 7.1 capable recievers. Also, the extra processing of the 7.1 surround format isin't just for decoding the 7.1 soundtrack of the movie (even though there are none) but it's also for the rooms that are big enough to cause sound problems when you only have 1 pair, or 3 speakers in the rear. The processor *expands* the rear sound stage with a 7.1 decoder to more evenly envelope you in the rear sound field. If you have a small room then 7.1 may not be for you because you will already get all the sound evelopment from the 2 rear speakers (or 3 in 6.1). But if you have a large room that lack of surround speakers will make it easy for you to hear where the surround *sound* is coming from - and that's a no-no in proper localization of surround effects (and also a yes-yes in some rear effects). You don't want to hear everything coming from a point. The more speakers you have in a large room the wider the feild becomes and the smoother the sound envelope is.
Many people confuse 7.1 decoding to a format like 5.1 or even 6.1, but it's not. It was always designed from the start to accompany 5.1 and 6.1 and just expand the sound feild of the rear effects.

7.1 and even 10.1 will be standard hard encoded effects on the new HD-DVD's and Blue Ray disc's (and will be backward compatible with DTS and Dolbt Digital 5.1), but you will need an even newer processor that can decode all the new formats that these Hi-Def players will offer - True Dolby HD, DTS 192, and many more, all offering up to 10.1 channels of sound for people that may need it. These extra channels on 10.1 are really a different monster than what we are used to now. They offer a speaker up in the ceiling, , some on the floor, many more around you, etc. The whole purpose is to envelope you more clearly in a circle of sound (just like in real life) so that what you hear is much more believable. Sure, it will cost more money and require more speakers, but so did Dolby Digital when it came out. Now you can get Dolby Digital 6.1 decoding on $50.00 Wallmart specials of the week, and we've all odopted 6 (or more) speakers in our rooms. If you got the money and room you got the 10.1 option, if not you still have regular old 5.1 surround.

Jimmy

[cosmicdust]

Hiya Jimmy N,

I don't know what you just said man but I tell you it sounded right! I hope it meant that I can stick to my 5.1 that I have now!

Thank you :-)
cosmicdust.

[thedelihaus]

Jimmy- delivering in full! Good job!

[rhkwon]

I would just wait. There's not much if anything available that would truly take advantage of 6.1 or 7.1

[Dusty Chalk]

I have a friend who's going back to 5.1 (after 7.1), what does that tell you? I say, "no" (you don't need to move up to 6.1 or 7.1).

[JimmyNeutron]

What does that tell me? Well it really doesn't tell me anything except that your freind is going back to 5.1. Other than that I don't know why. Does he know something the rest of us don't? Is he an expert in the pycho-acoustics of multi-speaker surround sound? Does his experience lend credibility to his judgement being what we should do?

Really people. The only thing that needs to be done (to the original poster) is to go and visit and audition a 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 surround set up. If you like the way 7.1 sounds over 5.1 then you know what way you should go. These different surround settings are :options:, meaning that no one "needs" to use them, and thus no one can say that you should or should not use them. There are many 6.1 titles available now, and many new ones being released every week - so 6.1 is a no brainer for me. 7.1 is only recommended if you have a large room. The key word is "recommended" - not "required". For me, if my reciever can make use of extra speakers to make the movie experience more realistic - and those settings sound good - then why not use them? Most of us have a few extra speakers lying around the house. Drag them over and hook them up and see how those extra surround settings sound like. If you are not happy, no money wasted.

Just my .02 cents.
Jimmy

[Dusty Chalk]

Well, except that the original poster used words like "...really need..." and "...works fine..." to describe his 5.1 system.

So yeah, if he means something else, he should audition (and think about how he's going to set up) a 6.1 or 7.1 or 12.2 system in his home, but if he really meant what he said, the short answer is, "no, he does not need to upgrade".

This coming from a surround-sound enthusiast, who dreams about eventually inventing a continuous surround sound system.

[avguytx]

It all depends on the size of the room, really. There is little 6.1 and 7.1 material but, receivers that have the ability for both, will take the 2 typical rear surround channels and, in a sense, add 1 or 2 more for more "effects". I have 7.1 in my living room (I'm a Home A/V Rep....why not!) and it sounds really good. But, 5.1 works just as well for most applications. It's just too easy anymore for them to go to 7.1 channel amplification and processing to say they have it. So look it in a sense that it "upconverts" 5.1 to 7.1 channels if they are added in. A nice advantage that a 7.1 receiver has that SOME receivers will allow you to do an either or on sound. You can do 7.1 channel sound in the living room OR do 5.1 surround in the LR and take those other 2 channels to a Zone 2 (back patio, etc) and listen to a different source simultaneously. I have that ability on mine so if we have friends over or we're cooking out, we can have a movie on in the LR and listen to Sirius outside while grilling. Like anything these days, you have choices. :)