High-front 7.1 HTS question

[ultimateman]

Hey there,

I just bought an Onkyo HT-S5400 HTIB. It is a 7.1 system and my couch is against my back wall preventing the typical configuration shown here:

http://www.audioholics.com/images/img2.jpg

Instead I'm looking to install my speakers with 5 front speakers (the additional rear speakers for 7.1 being installed as front-high speakers) as shown here:

Dolby Pro Logic IIz Details


My receiver supports the following formats: DSD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, DTS High-Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio.)

Now here's my question: Which if any of these formats can truly take advantage of a 7.1 front-high setup like the one I'd like to install?

If the answer is none, then does that just mean that the front four side speakers will not have discrete sound information? And if this is the case, is there much advantage in going with a 7.1 front-high installation over a standard 5.1?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[sdurani]

My receiver supports the following formats: DSD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, DTS High-Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio.)

Now here's my question: Which if any of these formats can truly take advantage of a 7.1 front-high setup like the one I'd like to install?

All of them.

The formats you listed are lossy and lossless compression codecs. By comparison, PLIIz is surround processing.

You should be able to apply surround processing to any of those codecs, unless your receiver has disabled that functionality.

 

[elangoas]

My receiver supports the following formats: DSD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, DTS High-Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio.)

Now here's my question: Which if any of these formats can truly take advantage of a 7.1 front-high setup like the one I'd like to install?

If the answer is none, then does that just mean that the front four side speakers will not have discrete sound information? And if this is the case, is there much advantage in going with a 7.1 front-high installation over a standard 5.1?

Thanks in advance!!!

DD, DD +, Dolby True HD, DTS, DTS HRA, DTS HD-MA are all discrete formats... Either 5.1 (or) 7.1....

Dolby Prologic IIz, DTS Neo X expand 5.1/7.1 --> 7.1/9.1 to using Front height & front wide channels...

 

[ultimateman]

Ah OK so apparently I was simply misunderstanding what I read yesterday. So basically I can set up my speakers as 7.1 front-high and have discrete sound coming from each speaker.

I do have one other question if you could be so kind...

From what I've read, conventional wisdom states that the speakers in your system should all converge at a "sweet spot", in my case probably the head-location of the person sitting on the center of my rear couch. Naturally if you are not sitting in the sweet spot your overall sound quality will be diminished slightly. My wife and I were wondering if the following setup illustrated below would work well:



In the picture, the thought is that perhaps we've created two semi-sweet spots, where in stead of one place where all seven speakers converge, you'll have two places where 3 speakers converge. Knowing of course that sound doesn't travel in literal straight lines but rather propagates and spreads out over distance, the center channel of course touches both semi-sweet spots, sort of a 3.5 point convergence if you will.

Its only a thought and I don't know if it's a good idea or not. Just looking for comments and suggestions. Would the conventional sweet spot be better? Is our semi-sweet spot idea a reasonable alternative?

 

[elangoas]

So basically I can set up my speakers as 7.1 front-high and have discrete sound coming from each speaker.

If you are playing 5.1 material and using Dolby PL II z\ Dts Neo : X, it will recreate the effects in 7.1 speakers... which is not discrete channel

 

[sdurani]

So basically I can set up my speakers as 7.1 front-high and have discrete sound coming from each speaker.

Let's separate "discrete" from "distinct". With a 5.1 soundtrack, your L/C/R speakers will be playing back discrete channels (as they are on the disc).

The discrete surround channels will be split into two parts: sounds that go to your surround speakers and sounds that go to your height speakers. Which means they are no longer discrete (as they were on the disc). But their content is distinct (not duplicated in any other speaker).

Would the conventional sweet spot be better? Is our semi-sweet spot idea a reasonable alternative?

To create a larger sweet spot, I like to use an old technique called 'energy trading'.

A speaker is louder when pointed at you and quieter when pointed away from you. A speaker is also louder when it is closer to you and quieter when farther away from you.

When you have 3 people sitting on a couch, the person on the left side has the left speaker closer to him AND pointing at him. By comparison, the opposite speaker is farther from him AND pointing away from him. As your diagram shows.

So there are two things making the nearby speaker louder and two things making the farther speaker quieter. This ends up really exaggerating the level differences between the L/R speakers and can cause the nearby speaker to dominate.

The solution is to point the nearby speaker at the person on the opposite end of the couch (left speaker pointed at the person on the right side of the couch, and vice versa). This means the nearby speaker is a little off-axis, which makes it slightly quieter to compensate for being closer. The opposite speaker is on-axis, so it gets slightly louder to compensate for being farther away.

This helps restore balance to the speaker levels for people sitting off-centre, because the nearby speaker isn't too loud and the farther speaker isn't too quiet. For the person sitting in the middle of the couch, things remain symmetrical from left to right (whatever you've done on one side you've also done on the other).

I would do this for the heights and surrounds as well.