Surrond sound 5.1, 6.1 and then 7.1 Does it really make a difference for a living room?

Question

what is the price difference

Answer 1

6.1 and 7.1 are just things companies made up to sell you more speakers. For MOST AVERAGE living rooms 5.1 is enough. I onyl recommend 7.1 when you have a big room with atleast 2 rows of sitting. When you only have one row of sitting like a living room there is not reason to spend more money in two extra speakers. It wont make your system sound better. Spend the extra money on better speakers!

Answer 2

Depending on how big your living room is, it does matter. I use a Sony 5.1 system and have listened to a 7.1 system in the same room and it sounds the same. I personally don't think it is worth the 6.1 or 7.1 price considering most movies are set up for 5.1 surround sound anyway

Answer 3

Not really a big difference.  There isn't alot of 7.1 aplications out there yet so it is sort of a waste at the moment. However I just bought a receiver that is 7.1 so its more future proof.  I listen to both 5.1 and 7.1 and there really isn't a difference unless you really, really listen for it.

Answer 4

I don't recommend 7.1 in rooms smaller than 12 x 12 but it's more about cost than performance. 5.1 disks benefit from 7.1 because the PL1 rear signal on every disk is sent to the rears. It effectively gives you what you would expect from behind you, since your surround speakers should be at your sides in Dolby Digital and DTS. THX also recommends side placement for surrounds.

I had a chance to play with the new Yamaha Z11 (which is 11.1 or 11.2) in a smaller room, connected to B&W bookshelf spkrs and a pair of subs. It was amazing! Forgetting about money for a moment, I think a good processor that can effectively control more speakers, coming at you from more directions, is always a better idea, regardless of room size.

I would expect a 7.1 receiver to cost $50 to $100 more than it's 5.1 counterpart and the speakers will cost according to how nice of speaker system you are planning.

Answer 5

It's nice having a 7.1 receiver even though I only run 5 speakers off of it.  Like the above poster said, most movies aren't in 7.1 format, so you won't see much of a difference, even when playing music.