Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Here we go again.

Dave, as long as you keep telling Axiom I did an audition for you, I encourage you to go for as many speakers as possible.

ha! Mental image. Great movie.

It seems like the more experiments are done with more than 7.1 speakers, like the new Dolby PL IIz, the more evidence there is that suggests they don't add much. the latest being the review from cnet of the Onkyo 607 which offers PLIIz. They couldn't hear the extra speakers at all until they got up near them.

linky... :o)

my apologies, that can be found here

Intersting read.
from Cnet.
"The bottom line is we didn't feel that Dolby Pro Logic IIz processing added much to the value of the TX-SR607, and we wouldn't recommend people going through the hassle of setting up their home theaters in that arrangement."

I do have a 7.1 setup and think there is a difference. Being surrounded by speakers really improve the experience. A 5.1 setup is enough to satisfy almost anyone but 7.1 is better. The hardest thing to do is the speakers placement, if you mess that up, it's pointless to add more.

I've been experimenting with movies in my 'probably destined to never be finished) HT room". Early experiments with 7.1 in my small room where the rears were only a foot or two behind me proved boring enough that I went back to 5.1 rather than have speaker stands back there in my walking pathways.

In the new room, I have dug out the rears again and they are 8 to 10 feet behind me. I am getting more of a rap around effect and can now definitely see benefits. Rear effects are much more distinctly rear and wrap around effects flow smoothly from the side, left to right in the rear and up towards the other side.

The benefits of 7.1 seem to be very room and dimensionally dependent in my new found opinion.

I have always felt 6/7.1 is only beneficial with very wide rooms and/or very long rooms with the rears at least 3-4 ft behind the listener.