Dana not to answer for JC but I find that the Wide speakers come into play more than the Height speakers do. This is also what theory dictates, that our hearing is more sensitive to sounds coming from the front sides than above. However, real world I think it’s somewhat more room/seating dependent.
I’ve done a huge amount of testing of both wide and height using specific scenes and also just watching whole programs and found the following. When they come into play both height and wide sound almost equally good with the slight edge going to height because of the extra 3-dimentionality of the sound. Probably due to my front speakers being below a very big screen and also having a vaulted ceiling to help spread out the sound from the height speakers. OTOH the wide speaker really fill in the gap between the mains and surround speakers in my present room which is longer and narrower than my last room, which didn’t have this sort of sound gap.
The reason that when in use the heights win for me is they have more of a “Wow!” factor. Like in the scene in LOTR FOTR at Balan’s Tomb in the Mines of Moria where the bucket falls down the well. The echoes coming from all directions especially overhead are so realistic its scary. Other scenes with ambient overhead sounds like wind and rain can also sound quite impressive. However, these types of scenes just don’t happen that often so the wide speakers end up coming into play much more often, literally in almost every scene.
Originally I preferred using the height speakers but that was because I was doing the testing with material they excel at. When it came down to just watching things I found that I when I switched from wide to height during general listening/viewing I quickly noticed that the wide speakers were missing. OTOH, when I switched from height to wide I really didn’t miss the height speakers because they just didn’t produce as much effects as often as the wide speakers do.
I would love to be able to run both at the same time but from the point of practicality the wide speakers in my room win hands down.
