Ask Engadget HD: 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound audio for beginners?
By Richard Lawler 
posted September 16th 2009 4:15PM
posted September 16th 2009 4:15PM
"To complement the audio found on Blu-ray movies or HD downloads, is a 5.1 setup good enough or will 7.1 surround make a significant difference? Any suggestions on best low end or mid-range setup?"
There's only about a million different HTIB systems or audio components to choose from, but for someone starting from scratch it's hard to know which item on the sales rack will be the best fit. Given what's available today, what would you start out with?
my answer would be to start with a 5.1 and increase it if *needed*. this is for someone looking to get into a beginner system.
personally, i don't have the room for 7.1 currently. =( must be nice.
Colin Robertson's approach is the best advice. Quality over quantity. EHD Reader Abul asks for "suggestions on best low end or mid-range setup?" There's simply no way to get any decent sound on the low-end if you have to start from scratch - 5 matched speakers, a subwoofer, and a receiver minimum (not to mention cabling, interconnects, etc) HTIB is a terrible suggestion for a beginner.
1) Start at a good Audio/Video retailer in your area -NOT Best Buy, Costco, or the internet. You may have to drive a little to get to a city near you with High-End Audio/Video retailers and options. Find someone at the store you like and listen to their advice and their products. If you don't like your salesperson, ask the store manager to work with someone else or go someplace else. They're supposed to help YOU find something that fits you and your budget, not what's on sale at their store. Prices WILL be higher than Best Buy or the internet for sure, but you're paying for help, intelligent advice, quality, and lastly but most importantly long-term service. Almost all high-end electronic retailers have great return and service policies. You will not get anything close to the same customer service or help at Best Buy or other big box retailers -and knowledgeable advice- forget it. The specialized Audio/Video retailer cares about your repeat business. They want you back in the future. As an aside, most will give you a "system" discount if you buy several products from them, but don't expect them to match online pricing. The equipment is higher priced because they have to pay people that know what they are talking about and most have been in the business for a long time. They're professional Audio/Video salespeople! *(Don't "use" your local High-End dealer for advice and buy somewhere else. They not only sell great equipment, but they also sell great experience and advice -nothing is free. Buy from them if you like their product and you'll get great continuing service.
2) Listen to a lot of speakers and equipment. You're learning -it takes time like anything else. Try other Audio and Video specialists and listen to their equipment (different brands.) Any good Audio/Video specialist will let you take speakers home and demo them in your specific room. If they won't, go somewhere else. *You just can't walk in from the street and say I want to take these home, but if they know you're serious and are a future customer...
3) Consider starting with 2.1 sound. Follow me here... You can always buy more matching speakers, but you're highly unlikely to go out and buy another receiver, pre-amp, subwoofer, 5-7 speakers and scrap your "system" you just bought, when you realize it's not really all that great sounding.
4) Spend your money on a very good Pre-amp/Amp (or receiver) and a pair of the best speakers you can afford. Consider whether you want to spend the money on a subwoofer now or later. A great pair of full-range speakers might just satisfy you for now and you can buy a great subwoofer later. Subwoofers are a very important component in any home theater. So important, many high-end theaters have 2! Some manufacturers have built in POWERED subwoofers that not only will do a very capable job, but also allow you to connect them to the sub-out jack on your pre-amp or receiver (thus the .1 sound) Definitive Technology (just to name one) has several speaker products that can work this way in a wide range of sizes and prices.
4) Spending your money on a high quality 2.1 system to start will give you amazing sound and allow you to add speakers as you grow. Next (as budget allows) add a matching center channel (should be sonically identical to the front pair), then a pair for the rear. Be careful with the purchase of the center channel speaker. Many do not sonically match -even though they're marketed that way!
5) Avoid speakers meant to be attached to the wall (flat panel). They will not sound very good and can be very expensive. Good sounding flat panel speakers are available, but are very expensive (a pair of B&W FPM-5s are $1,600 -so 5 would eventually cost $4,000) *Avoid BOSE at all costs -extremely expensive for the poor quality you get. They spend a ton of $$$ on marketing -where do you think they get that? -inflated pricing!
6) Rotel and NAD are good suggestions by Colin to start with. Other mid-range quality components come from Marantz, Paradigm, Yamaha, Denon and Sony ES products. FYI many manufacturers now make products specifically to sell at stores like Best Buy. These ARE NOT the same quality that you will find at a quality Audio/Video store. Be careful here. For example Klipsch makes some very good home theater speakers, but also sell a couple lesser models at Best Buy which are frankly not very good sounding. Sony does this also. The Sony STR line of receivers are very cheap at Best Buy-you need to demo Sony ES products which can only be found at local high-end retailers.
7) Take your time, read reviews from notable publications (High-End Audio/Video publications -Widescreen Review is a very detailed publication specializing in some of the best products on the market. You'll learn a lot from one of these more professional magazines than say a publication such as Sound & Vision.
8) If you are skeptical about this direction, ask a professional at your local High-End retailer. Listen to what they say. I would be very surprised if they did not recommend a similar direction to start. It's the best way for a beginner to get into High-End sound. Start with 2.0 or 2.1 sound with the best components you can possibly afford and build your dream system over time. Almost all the Audiophiles (and Videophiles) I know have been building their systems for years -adding and subtracting equipment as budgets, experience, and sonic abilities increase. Rome wasn't built in a day. Start with High Quality basic system first and you can grow from there. You will never be sorry that you spent your hard earned money on an awesome, quality sounding 2.1 system. You will probably have regrets if you rush out and buy a 5.1 channel HTIB from a big box or online retailer because you think you're getting a good deal buying everything at once.
9) Bigger is not always sonically better. 7.1 is not necessarily better than 5.1 which is not necessarily better than a great 2.1 system (or 3.1). Quality trumps quantity any day. The sound field that can be created with a great pair of speakers and capable amp can give you goosebumps. It's the total sonic experience that counts, not how many speakers you have.
10) Maintain patience, do not get in a hurry, and have fun listening and learning! (Consider taking your significant other -you might be surprised at how much they enjoy listening and learning also)
I think the ONLY 5.1 systems any more probably are the 89.95 super market brands... everything I see is 7.1. And get ready, already at the high end are 9.1 systems.
Some of the 7.1 DO allow you to take an extra channel and "add" it to on the fronts. So you end up with 5, but the two at the front have more power available.
Even so, I find that for many films, they simply do not really take advantage beyond the front 3. AND I am NOT talking about wiz-bang sound effects. For JUST music, having the side/rear channels CAN be used for ambiance. There sure as hell are a small number of movies that with just music playing, you feel like you're really in a live hall. For others, it's all coming from the front.
Not to mention there is technology that has been around for a while that artificially creates than ambiance. I've been using Bob Carver's "Sonic Holography" for over a decade and for everyone who has heard it in my place, they are blown away. They DO NOT hear more speakers (they don't exist) but when I shut it off, the universal remark is that sonically everything collapsed. Uh, this is with very standard 2 channel "stereo."
Sound design is an art, and I find there simply aren't that many who really do it right.
7.1 and now 9.1 are exactly like the megapixel race in cameras. Only for VERY limited use, more pixels brings little if any actual improvement. This is all about marketing.
I would far prefer to have rms power go up per channel. To me a 200w/channel 5.1 is far preferable to a 100w/channel 7.1 system. And NOT for louder (people refuse to bother to educate themselves so invariably someone will crab about not needing to be able to make it louder), 200w/channel provides for a lot more headroom, so it's not louder, but CLEANER. Keep in mind Dolby Digital is all about dynamic range. Not having distortion creep into crescendos is another example of QUALITY over quantity of channels.
Oh, one more thought. One of the best examples of really excellent design is the movie U-571. THIS shows exactly how to really use multi-channel audio. POne a properly balanced 5.1 system, you'd swear you were in the boat, there are creakings and groanings coming from all around you in spots... yet how many movies that have storms in them where it sounds like the entire storm is in front of you?
If it's your first time, just get a 200 dollar 5.1 HTIB. You WILL be blown away if you're coming from tv speakers. Then, in a couple years when your ears have become accustomed and the freshness has worn off, go for the full setup and you will AGAIN be blown away by the improvement. This is what I did. Got a Pro Logic 5.1 htib in 1999 (they were rather expensive then.) I was blown away, especially with my brand new 36" CRT. Then upgraded to Dolby Digital 5.1 HTIB in 2004 for only 200 bucks. Again I was blown away by the improvement. Got 37" HDTV in 2007, and four months ago I upgraded to a full surround setup using tower fronts and proper speakers for around $2000 using Lossless Audio on Bluray with a 2000 watt speaker system including 2 subwoofers. Now... EVERYONE is blown away by the system. It sounds better than the local movie theater.
But the biggest impact (literally) is the two subwoofers. Many people have come to find that several average size subs (say 12") can sound and feel way better than one thousand dollar big sub.
Uncompressed 7.1Ch audio... all the way... 100% \[^_^]/