Surround Back or Front High?

[rejeeb]

I am in the process of setting up my 7.1 speakers. I've doubt about where to position the additional 2 speakers, should I use them as Surround Back or Front High? Which position will give better experience?

I am going to use Onkyo-608, it supports Audyssey DSX and Dolby Pro Logic IIz.

Pls advise.

 

[venkatcr]

I am in the process of setting up my 7.1 speakers. I've doubt about where to position the additional 2 speakers, should I use them as Surround Back or Front High? Which position will give better experience?

Using speakers in the front only makes sense if you have a large number of Dolby Prologic IIz codes in movies. Though the codec is available, I have not come across many movies using that codec. 7.1, though makes sense as lots of Blu-Rays with full 7.1 channels have started.

Cheers

 

[rahuljonline]

I am in the process of setting up my 7.1 speakers. I've doubt about where to position the additional 2 speakers, should I use them as Surround Back or Front High? Which position will give better experience?

I am going to use Onkyo-608, it supports Audyssey DSX and Dolby Pro Logic IIz.

Pls advise.

I believe surround back will be more versatile. Also, surround back gives discrete 7.1 from each speaker (if your source is 7.1).
Front high can be added along with surround back ,in place of zone 2. The effect is added via PLIIz.
The front high gives the effect of jets fly away, high...

 

[ranojoy]

Look at it this way.

1. If you use them as front height channels, you can enjoy the PLIIz facility, which, however, is only a matrixed pair of channels, i.e. channels derived / extrapolated from the main 5.1 mix.

2. If you use them as rear surround channels, you can get either -
(a) for 5.1 material (DVDs & BDs) --> 5.1 + matrixed rear surrounds, i.e. additional 2 channels derived / extrapolated from the surround channels in the main 5.1 mix OR
(b) for 6.1 material (some DVDs & BDs) --> 5.1 + matrixed rear surrounds, i.e. additional 2 channels derived / extrapolated from the additional 6th rear channel OR
(c) for 7.1 material (BDs) --> discrete 7.1, provided you have discrete 7.1 encoded material.

You have to take a call based on the kind of material you possess.

 

[rahuljonline]

Look at it this way.

1. If you use them as front height channels, you can enjoy the PLIIz facility, which, however, is only a matrixed pair of channels, i.e. channels derived / extrapolated from the main 5.1 mix.

2. If you use them as rear surround channels, you can get either -
(a) for 5.1 material (DVDs & BDs) --> 5.1 + matrixed rear surrounds, i.e. additional 2 channels derived / extrapolated from the surround channels in the main 5.1 mix OR
(b) for 6.1 material (some DVDs & BDs) --> 5.1 + matrixed rear surrounds, i.e. additional 2 channels derived / extrapolated from the additional 6th rear channel OR
(c) for 7.1 material (BDs) --> discrete 7.1, provided you have discrete 7.1 encoded material.

You have to take a call based on the kind of material you possess.

Exactly :clapping:

 

[rejeeb]

Thx a lot for your inputs. I've been doing a bit research on this, here is a snippet of review comments from Home Entertainment magazine
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There has been a lot of negative press about these new height formats, as many who were writing about them clearly didnt understand what they were for and what they could do.

As Craig Eggers from Dolby put it, this isnt about planes flying over your head during Top Gun. The best way to think of these speakers is as added ambient sound, expanding the sound envelopment of your audio system. It makes the soundstage of your current system larger, without having to add larger speakers.

Personally, Id take width or height over surround back in a 7.1 system. The effect with the height or width speakers is far more pronounced and enjoyable to me than the occasional effect youd get with surround back speakers.

That said, its really going to depend on your room and system. If you have a long theater and big speakers, surround back may work better for you. If youre like most people and you have smaller speakers and an average-sized room, height or width speakers will definitely add a new element to your system.
---------------------

AVSForum
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1284502

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/H...ls-Dolby-ProLogic-IIz-Is-it-Worth-Doing.shtml

 

[GeorgeO]

On a recent visit to a high end AV store in Philadelphia( where the salesman told me they have done single home installations of upto $2 million), I was told that front high could allow you to hear the buzzing of insects in Avatar. I suppose at the end the size of room will determine some choices.

 

[rejeeb]

I am decided to go with Front wides/heights as recommended by Audyssey.

Research in human hearing shows that we can hear many more directions than what current systems provide. We use the direct sound to localize the direction of sources and the reflected sound to perceive the size of the soundstage.

Experiments have shown that human localization is better in front than to the sides or behind. This means that for front-weighted content such as movies and most music, good engineering dictates that we employ more channels in the front hemisphere than the back. Imaging is also better horizontally than vertically and so good engineering also dictates that channels must first be added in the same plane as our ears before going to higher elevations.

Perception is not the only factor. The physics of room acoustics for music have been well studied, and their correlation with subjective impression increasingly understood over the last 30 years. This research has shown that we have strong built-in preferences for the direction, frequency response, and time of arrival of reflected sound. Additional channels and surround sound processing are needed to properly render these components.

Wides before Heights
One key finding from the research is that first side wall reflections play a great role in determining subjective impression. The most important direction of reflected sound was found to be 60 relative to the front. Audyssey DSX provides a pair of Wide channels (LW and RW) at 60 with appropriate frequency response and perceptual processing to match these requirements of human hearing. These Wide channels are much more critical in the presentation of a realistic soundstage than the Back Surround channels found in traditional 7.1 systems. Adding surround channels behind the listener has a very small impact compared to the increase in envelopment and soundstage width that the Wide channels provide.

The next most important acoustical and perceptual cues come from reflections above the front stage. Audyssey DSX provides a pair of Height channels (LH and RH) that should be ideally positioned at a 45 elevation angle.

 

[venkatcr]

This is, as usual, unsubstantiated marketing gibberish.

Actually none of this matters as long as the material does not contain that specific channel.

Cheers

 

[rejeeb]

Yeah that may be true!
Anyways I am decided to experiment ;-)

Here is a consolidated review comments about Audyssey DSX, it says "DSX requires a 5.1 input in order to create the additional wide and height channels."

 

[aakashr]

Yeah that may be true!
Anyways I am decided to experiment ;-)

Here is a consolidated review comments about Audyssey DSX, it says "DSX requires a 5.1 input in order to create the additional wide and height channels."

I'm also planning on adding front heights..........dolby recommends 3ft above front speakers, what height did you use for yours? I am thinking maybe 4ft since I have a high ceiling..........was reading somewhere higher the better.