By MARIO ARMSTRONG
7.1 Surround Sound
Posted: 2007-05-01 15:07:43
How can you expect to feel the impact of the jets that stream across from the left side to the right side of your speakers and when they fire you feel the rumbling bass tremble in your living room - that's the enveloping impact of good quality surround sound which begins with a quality receiver.
Whether you're building a system capable of delivering full-on home theater thrills, or one that's intended exclusively for listening to music, you'll find that your receiver is the most crucial component to your listening experience. Simply put, the receiver supplies both the brain and the muscle for your system. That's why it's especially important to select a model that fits your room size and your sound needs.
Essentially a receiver powers your speakers, tunes in FM and AM radio stations, provides easy switching between audio and video sources, and lets you tailor the sound of your system to suit your room and your preferences. Home theater receivers also provide the decoding that lets you enjoy movies, TV shows, and music in all-encompassing surround sound. Now I love surround sound as much as the next person but I find all to often that the confusing formats and tech terms scare aware more people.
Audio has come along way since the early days and now sports several formats like 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1. Basically the 5, 6 & 7 refer to the number of speakers in the room. The .1 refers to the subwoofer.
So in a 5.1 setup, you'll have a right front speaker, a left front speaker, a center speaker, a subwoofer, a left rear speaker and a right rear speaker totaling six speakers for 6.1.
Technically speaking 7.1 is not a recognized format. The term "7.1 channel" can actually be rather misleading, while discrete 7.1 channel encoding is not presently in practice, Dolby has recently unveiled its new Dolby Pro Logic IIx matrix decoding system, designed to extract up to 7.1 unique channels of information from media originally encoded with anywhere from 2 to 6.1 channels of audio.
Bottom line there is no true 7.1 encoding format, systems are intelligently taking the existing audio and reproducing the sound to fill the other 2 speakers. 7.1 might work well if you have a very large room and if you want to take advantage of Blu-ray or HD DVD.
Some 7.1 formats are confusing more and more people. I've witnessed customers in stores looking for information on surround sound and they end up having what I call that glazed-donut-eyes look. Sometimes it seems that the tech industry is so interested in pushing a new standard that they are fine with risking the consumer confusion that inevitably kicks in.
Bottom line, for most homes 5.1 surround sound is the most appropriate and the most common home theatre sound configuration today. Dolby Digital is the most popular flavor of 5.1 surround sound due to its use as the industry-standard surround technology used for movies on DVD but DTS another 5.1 surround sound option is a bit better in quality than Dolby Digital. DTS uses less compression than Dolby which in turn allows DTS to be a little more accurate. Most receivers today will handle both Dolby Digital and DTS options the most popular, however if you want to get the most out of your DVD's check the packaging to see if it supports your format of choice.
Speaker setup for a room with 7.1 surround sound should have speakers positioned with 4 speakers in the front, the left, center, right and subwoofer, two speakers should be placed at ear level on the right and left side of where people will be sitting and two additional speakers left back and right back should be no more than 3 or more feet behind the listening position.
Bottom line: Don't rush, 5.1 is fine right now, however if you have extra money to buy two additional speakers, have a large room, the latest gaming console or want a multi-room capability where you can send a different audio source like an iPod, cd or FM station to another room from the same receiver then 7.1 may just be something you should research.
Mario Armstrong is a technology talk show host, writer, consultant and public speaker that explores how technology impacts the way we work, live and play. He is heard on NPR, XM radio and seen on WMAR-ABC2 TV. More online at: www.MarioArmstrong.com.
Essentially a receiver powers your speakers, tunes in FM and AM radio stations, provides easy switching between audio and video sources, and lets you tailor the sound of your system to suit your room and your preferences. Home theater receivers also provide the decoding that lets you enjoy movies, TV shows, and music in all-encompassing surround sound. Now I love surround sound as much as the next person but I find all to often that the confusing formats and tech terms scare aware more people.
Audio has come along way since the early days and now sports several formats like 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1. Basically the 5, 6 & 7 refer to the number of speakers in the room. The .1 refers to the subwoofer.
So in a 5.1 setup, you'll have a right front speaker, a left front speaker, a center speaker, a subwoofer, a left rear speaker and a right rear speaker totaling six speakers for 6.1.
Technically speaking 7.1 is not a recognized format. The term "7.1 channel" can actually be rather misleading, while discrete 7.1 channel encoding is not presently in practice, Dolby has recently unveiled its new Dolby Pro Logic IIx matrix decoding system, designed to extract up to 7.1 unique channels of information from media originally encoded with anywhere from 2 to 6.1 channels of audio.
Bottom line there is no true 7.1 encoding format, systems are intelligently taking the existing audio and reproducing the sound to fill the other 2 speakers. 7.1 might work well if you have a very large room and if you want to take advantage of Blu-ray or HD DVD.
Some 7.1 formats are confusing more and more people. I've witnessed customers in stores looking for information on surround sound and they end up having what I call that glazed-donut-eyes look. Sometimes it seems that the tech industry is so interested in pushing a new standard that they are fine with risking the consumer confusion that inevitably kicks in.
Bottom line, for most homes 5.1 surround sound is the most appropriate and the most common home theatre sound configuration today. Dolby Digital is the most popular flavor of 5.1 surround sound due to its use as the industry-standard surround technology used for movies on DVD but DTS another 5.1 surround sound option is a bit better in quality than Dolby Digital. DTS uses less compression than Dolby which in turn allows DTS to be a little more accurate. Most receivers today will handle both Dolby Digital and DTS options the most popular, however if you want to get the most out of your DVD's check the packaging to see if it supports your format of choice.
Speaker setup for a room with 7.1 surround sound should have speakers positioned with 4 speakers in the front, the left, center, right and subwoofer, two speakers should be placed at ear level on the right and left side of where people will be sitting and two additional speakers left back and right back should be no more than 3 or more feet behind the listening position.
Bottom line: Don't rush, 5.1 is fine right now, however if you have extra money to buy two additional speakers, have a large room, the latest gaming console or want a multi-room capability where you can send a different audio source like an iPod, cd or FM station to another room from the same receiver then 7.1 may just be something you should research.
Mario Armstrong is a technology talk show host, writer, consultant and public speaker that explores how technology impacts the way we work, live and play. He is heard on NPR, XM radio and seen on WMAR-ABC2 TV. More online at: www.MarioArmstrong.com.
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