Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater 5.1 or 7.1 in a HT room 12 x 19?

which way to go and why?
thanks

Welcome Sir

You could go either way on this one, a lot depends on your seating arangement. If your going to be backed up to the back wall, the rear channels won't help a lot, you really need some seperation from the seating position. I guess you could always wire the room for 7.1 for future expansion, but start with 5.1. Whatever you do, make sure you get the Qs8's or Qs4's for your left/right surrounds, you will think you have 7.1, they will totally envelope you in sounds you've never heard before

SirQuack


Axiom m60s vp150 ep350 4-Qs8's
Denon 2805
Sanyo Z2 Projector
Panasonic S97S DVD
Prismasonic 600H anamorphic lens
10ft 2.35 DIY screen

thanks sir,
i am going to have two rows fo seating. the back row will be 10 inchesw from wall. the front will be 6 feet from wall. 2 seats up front and 3 in back.

With two rows of seating I'd give 7.1 a try. I'd mount a pair of QS8's to the sides, and another pair of QS8's on the rear wall.

Good luck! Sounds like you're going to have a terrific room!

Hey Sirclyde
We almost have the same size room. My room size is 11x19. At the beginning of my setup, I could not decide if I should have a 5.1 or 7.1. I didn't know if 7.1 was going to be to much for that size room. I wounded up doing a 5.1 BUT, wired the room for 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1. Guess what????? Now I want to add more speakers. I am going to try the 6.1. I am going to add a QS8 in the back center. The reason that I am going this route is because of what SIRQUAK mentioned at the beginning of this post, "The QS4's and QS8's on the sides will make you think that you have a 7.1". So that means that I do not need to add two more speakers on the back walls (saves me money). As I do get that 7.1 effect now with 5.1 , I think that by adding another QS8 in the back center, It will give me more of a real surround effect. Just my opinion.

Pre-wiring is always a nice way to help "future proof" your setup, if you have the option of doing that now. I would reccommend going with a 7.1 system, especially with two rows of seating. That way, you can hang the side surrounds directly parallel with the front seats (maybe slightly behind) and the rears will help fill out the back of the room for the back row.

In that set-up, I would go with all QS type speakers, no direct raidators since the back row might feel like they're a little removed from the soudn content with direct radiators. The spaciou feel of the rear-surround Qs will help to provide a nice "width" the back wall and they will blend better with the side QSs.

If you choose to go with direct radiators, you can always set them on a shelf, or use brackets of some sort to angle them towards the ceiling, using it as a reflective surface to disperse the direct radiating rear speakers. This will make the rear speakers appear as if they are coming from slightly further back in the room, also opening up the back wall.

Whatever you do, with two rows, you're going to have a lot of "sweet spot" to fill with non-localized, full sound. 7.1 seems like a perfect solution to this.

Think of it this way - how much will you spend there alone (possibly in the front row) and how much you will use both rows. Having the speakers in the back does not cost much and certainly adds to the experience.
I have QS8s just above the back row in a similar sized room and they sound very nice even when close.

Sir, as Randy pointed out, the main factor isn't the size of the room, but whether there's enough room behind the listening position for a back surround effect to be experienced. There should be at least 3-4' for this, so your front row should benefit significantly from the back surrounds. My suggestion would be to do the 7.1 and put guests who you don't especially like in the back row.

In reply to:

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My suggestion would be to do the 7.1 and put guests who you don't especially like in the back row.

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LOL, a couple of days ago my wife asked me what type of furniture was going to go in the the new HT type room my reply was 'One Lazy Boy, positioned right there in the middle'...needless to say it didn't take but a moment for me to realized that my idea wasn't going to fly for a millisecond.

In reply to:

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Sir, as Randy pointed out, the main factor isn't the size of the room, but whether there's enough room behind the listening position for a back surround effect to be experienced. There should be at least 3-4' for this, so your front row should benefit significantly from the back surrounds. My suggestion would be to do the 7.1 and put guests who you don't especially like in the back row.

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Well, there you go sir. You would have two setups in one room. The people in the front = 7.1 and the people in the back = 5.1