I agree that it is good to buy a 7.1 receiver if you don't have a receiver already, but the actual value of 7.1 over 5.1 is up for debate, and you should get several responses here.

I asked the same question about 6 months ago, and now I am here with my 5.1 Axiom system and love it. Since my listening area is not very deep (distance from the back of the room to the screen, or at least where the screen WILL be when I am done), I didn't have the depth to put a rear center (6.1) let alone 2 speakers back there for 7.1. I hear that you need a really good sized room to REALLY get the benefits of 6.1 or 7.1...

WIth that said, you mentioned 7.2... Since the number after the "." is for subwoofers, you will find that some people here have 5.2, 6.2, 7.2, etc... I was looking in a home theater magazine I got a couple of months ago, and there is a company that sells speakers that give you 5.5, 6.6, 7.7 and so on. Every speaker has a powered subwoofer in it. I don't think that each sub is that powerful by itself, but together they are supposed to generate a move even sound. So you only see 5, 6, or 7 speakers (no seperate sub since the subs are internal) for 5.5, 6.6, and 7.7 setups, unlike seeing 6 speakers for 5.1, 7 speakers for 6.1 and 8 speakers for 7.1 like the rest of us.

Neat idea, but who knows. Like I said, just saw an ad in a magazine, I have no idea how good that is.


Farewell - June 4, 2020