Since no movies are being encoded with discrete "height" channels, as a previous Yamaha owner, this just looks like the feature of extra "presence" channels revisited and now gone more mainstream as Dolby has something else to license. Sound will be primarily extracted from the existing L/R channels and some from the center in one form or another probably altering the phase a little bit and placed in to these elevated speakers. This even reminds a little of the pre DD and DTS sound days when designated 70mm theaters use to add an extra pair of speakers in the front. Sounds like marketing to me and I am not getting too excited about it.
I am wondering how people are going to react to the idea of adding even more speakers now that they are labeling this a "9.2" set-up?
From what I’ve read the algorithms used for the Dolby and Audyssey height channels are different from what Yamaha did with their “presence” channels. OTOH I could understand anyone’s trepidation since I consider surround back channels to be pretty much a waste of time. Since I’ve already got the extra speakers to try this out and needed an new receiver anyway it’s only going to cost me a little time to try these out so I figure I might as well.
With 2 external amps you can also run the Onkyo 3007 I just bought in 11.2 though I already know that I don’t need surround back speakers if I move my side surrounds farther back so I’m hoping that the wide channels will make up for this giving smoother transitions from front to back while still giving me a balanced rear soundstage.
Also the .2 part of the setup actually benefits me as I can now adjust my Butkicker remotely (not directly at the amp) without also changing the level of my subwoofer.
