Yamaha front presence or rear surrounds?

jasper_mccrea

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Hi,

having a 750SE (previously an A1 and an A2), I've always wondered about the benefits from the front presence speakers might be. I've never had the space to have more than 5 speakers before (but the opportunity might soon arise). Am I better off going for 2 more speakers at the back, or two more at the front.

What are other 1*** or 2*** or 750 owners using? Any AZ* owners using all the speakers?

I'm probably going to try out both, but wondered if anyone else had done a bit of trial and error?

Cheers,
Jasper
 
I am wondering the same thing. Currently only running front's and rears. You canonly have one set running presence or rears...so it is up in the air for me as well....hopefully someone with the set up will let us know.
 
I had a dsp-a3090 when using only 5.1 speaker i sounds ok, but when i use the presence speakers, i sounds like im sitting in a larger room.
Yhis is goog for me because my living room is very small, and i can't get the sound field like a cinema, but when i used the presence speakers i sounded like in the cinema.
im going to buy the yamaha dsp-z9 because of the presence speakers together with the dolby EX, at the same time, this will give me 9.1
 
I couldn't tell the difference between DD and DDEX on DDEX material. This doesn't surprise me as putting extra speakers between existing ones doesn't give you any extra scope for altering where the sound sounds like it is coming from. I guess it could improve things if your surrounds are not positioned very well, eg if you are sitting in a corner and your surrounds are in front of you.

I haven't tried the presence speakers. Forgetting about making your room sound like something else, I suppose they could be interesting if they make helicopters etc sound more like they are overhead.
 
What you have to remember about extended surround is that it was originally intended for movie theaters, where the 4:2:4 and 5.1 formats give a very general surround field that doesn't come from behind you, but spreads around you because of the speaker arrangement, and directionality is limited to coming from the sides. The rear surround channel allowed sounds to be reproduced from only the rear wall surround array.

For home use, it's much more dependent on how your actual room layout and speaker placement look. If your left and right surrounds are already a bit behind you and surround content sounds as if it's coming from behind, then extended surround may not be as necessary. Still, the left and right surrounds are recommended to be more to your sides than behind, depending on which recommendation you look at, around 90-120° away from front center relative to your listening position. If they're to your sides and you have space for back surround channels, they can make an improvement.

The presence channels in turn may be used in Cinema DSP for lifting the front soundstage and make it sound more spacious. It can be helpful if your speakers are at ear level and the center speaker sits below the display. When you're not using presence speakers, their output is mixed into the front channels, so it won't add any processing you're not already getting (aside from the option of Dialog Lift) but just reproduce the existing one in a supposedly better way. The presences speakers should be place quite high up though, and wider apart than the front left and right speakers.
 
This is my current setup with presence speakers:

Img_0489b.jpg


Left, right and centre speakers are JM Lab Chorus LCR700. Presence are a pair of JM Lab Sib. The screen is an Ikea Tupplur roller blind. :thumbsup:
 
Nice setup. I do not think Presence speakers will help me out with my weird room layout (u can view it in the user gallerys). I have a futon and a couch that are setup in an L-Shape and I usually watch a movie or listen to music in the corner of the long couch or the "stem of the L" where it branches off. I am quietly considering a rear center channel speaker though. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I have LOTR Two Towers which I beleive is DDEX.
 

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