Fascinating conversation all. I've been doing much research in the realm of subwoofers lately and I'd say. Yes, you could have 5 subwoofers and it be only 5.1, or you could have 5 subwoofers and it be 5.5.

Simply stated that if you had 5 subwoofers only receive the .1 signal all you have is duplication of one signal. Now, take those 5 subwoofers and have them receive the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and .1 signals...well now you have a 5.5. Each subwoofer carrying a discrete singnal. And depending how you set it up can run seamlessly in conjunction with your surround speakers giving each channel the ability to hit down to the 20 Hz range (should your subwoofer be capable). Note that there are MANY movies that have surrounds that go below 25 Hz in the surrounds, and more yet that do such in the center channel.

So many may think the concept as outragous, it really is the best of all given that bass signals don't become non-directional until below 60 Hz (and no, its not 80 Hz like you believe from THX). The reason this truely is ideal is matching bass ENERGY. You can feel a seamless blend between each speaker.

The bottom line is that all speakers would be set to LARGE and occompanied by a subwoofer.

I used to think these people were nuts, they just really are people who have figured it out, AND have the money, means, and room to pull it off.

The most affordable approach, though not as pure, is to set all speakers to small and cross over at 60 Hz. When you set a speaker to small it incorporates an additional crossover, which degrades the sound vs all being set to large. Setting some to small and some to large still incorporates the crossover becauase you still have the signal passing through because of the speakers set to small. Only when all speakers are set to large do you remove the crossover. This is why having multiple subwoofers is the most pure.

And heres another tip. I made this change and sound difference blew my mind. But if you remove your setting of your subwoofer on your receiver menu to "not present" or "off" or whatever your setting...it removes yet ANOTHER crossover. So, all speakers set to large, Subwoofer disabled...you've now removed TWO crossovers. This, in turn, is a much cleaner signal. Try it, you'll see. Oh...and when you remove the subwoofer signal (or .1 signal), it redirects it the two front speakers (assuming they're set to large), so make sure you have a decent left and right front before you turn it up too loud. I have the M60s, M80s would probably be better still in this function. I now use my left and right front pre-outs to send the LFE signal to my subwoofer.

So in essence I'm running a 5.0, but its really 5.1 redirected to 5.0. The subwoofer takes the signal and removes the high frequencies with its built in low pass filter.

I know you'll all want to take this with a grain of salt, but this is the result of HOURS of research and testing.

Crazy stuff, but fun to play with if you have the time.

"We're on the island of Misfit Toys"