Is 7.1 worthwhile??

[KeithLaw]

Evening,
I have a 5.1 system in my lounge (Kef 3005's running on a Denon 3803) but am setting up a new system in my old dining room.
I am considering a 7.1 system but will I really gain much from it - the room is not massive.
Thoughts appreciated.

 

[Sniper]

Opinions will vary - and I'm not going to tell you I have the definative answer BUT as I see it, anything beyond 6.1 is pointless in normal(ish) sized rooms!

Even more so if you're seated paralell to the narrowest wall in the room (was that understandable!)

 

[HiFiRuss71]

If you end up with a lot of space behind the seating position, there is some opinion that the extra surrounds helpto 'fill in' the space behind you.

Personally, I feel the extra speakers cost, outweighs their usefullness with vanilla DD & DTS. There is little material with discrete sound tracks (DTS-ES 6.1 etc) that really makes any real use of the extra speakers.

The newer HD sound formats however, may be a different kettle of fish.

Russell

 

[iainsilvester]

Russell's first post is important, rears need room to breathe and it sounds like this may be tricky in your room? I started with 5 and jumped to 7 whlist I could still buy M&K Sure you can play with more sexy decoding algorithms on the amp but other than filling the gap between my LS and RS (which does give us more flexible seating arrangements -the LS/LR are 5m apart) I'm not sure the rears add a great deal.

The only DVD we have that actually mixes a dedicated rear is Pearl Harbour, I'm sure there are others but the vast majority are 5.1, so it comes down to how well the amp's software works. My boys mutter about not getting true 7.1 on the PS3 games (I have to use optical audio) but as far as I am concerned there is way too much racket in the HC as it is