Getting closer to being able redo my system. It will be a 7.2 and question is about the rears, not surrounds.

I am about 50/50 on music vs video. I do have multi-channel SACDs and DVD-As. I recall reading that direct radiating rears are preferred for music. Curious about your thoughts on that as well as what direction you would tend to go with a 50/50 mix.

Thanks
Mark

I think it is a personal preference, many like QS's all around other's prefer a direct radiating. Order both types and see which ones you like best then send the losers back.

I fall into the direct radiating for rear channel scenario if in 7.1 but in a 6.1 I feel the QS helps fill the gap to the side surrounds better.

There is also another issue on how to mount the rear channels, IIRC, The THX website says for std def they should be mounted very close together and for HD audio they should be wider apart.

http://www.thx.com/home/setup/speakers/dolby.html

Buy the Qs8's in-fee-del...or...Achmed will keel you.

Are the new Denons still letting you have both, direct for music and quad for movies? Then you could keep both speakers. My AVR 3300 has that feature, but I have never used it.

Not quite sure I get the idea of that comment. Direct only uses the mains, 2 channel, and then to move to a movie configuration it would then use all 5 or 7 or what ever surround system you want. To keep direct radiating rear channel speakers and QS's for the same set up isn't possible as the outputs are the same set of binding posts on the receiver, I guess you could run an external speaker switch and then switch them to which ever set you wanted.

They must have gotten ride of that option. On my AVR 3300, you have surround A and surround B posts. In the system config you set the A and B as you wish (big or small). But on various formats you pick which set you want to use. For DVD, you can set it to play the quad-polar "A" surrounds, but on SACD you have it set to use the direct radiating "B" surrounds. Like I said, I never used it as I never had room for two sets of surrounds in my room. I'm guessing that was a common choice so they got rid of the extra surround option once 7.1 became the standard. They would need tons of posts if they adopted the same options for a 7.1 system. But, you would be the only guy (or gal) on the block with a freaking 14.1 system! Or if SirQuack got involved with this, a 14.7 system with all his subs. (I got a bad case of woofer envy! )

But he would still be behind the Jonses with their n.8 system.

Charles, the A/B surround option still exists, but that isn't relevant to the topic of the thread, which is the back surround speaker in a 7.1 speaker setup. The A/B option allows two different type speakers to be chosen for playing the side surround channel, but both are part of a 5.1 channel system. The back surround speakers for a 7.1 system are connected to a different output terminal and have nothing to do with the A/B surround option.

Well, not exactly. I said my AVR 3300 - 5.1 only - had this option. And I raised it in response to a statement about direct versus multi-polar. So there was some relevance and i simply asked if Denon still had that option.

But thanks for the clarification.