Room size and impact of surround spkr

[2channellover]

After about a month of researching I'm getting close to a decision on spkrs for my new HT room.

The room is medium size I guess for HT...21'wide by 17' deep by 10' h, the screen will be on the 21' wall, and seating 13' from the screen and approx. 11'/12' from the LCR spkrs.

Initially I was considering a 7.1 system. Then I got some feedback (actually on this db) indicating a 5.1 system might be better because the depth of the room wasn't that much. Last week I demoed, the spkr combo I'm thinking of buying. This demo room was about 18' wide and 22' deep (nearly the reverse of mine). We played the same demo sample in 5.1 and 7.1, both sound very good, but 7.1 version did sound better with the surrounds in the mix.

The obvious remedy is to demo the surrounds in my HT room, but I wanted ask how much does room depth factor into the need or impact of surround spkrs? Also, the dealer mentioned I could go with the surrounds and forgo the rears in a 5.1 setup.

FWIW - the spkr setup I'm leaning towards is Studio 60s LCR (may step up to the 100s and go with 1 sub instead of 2), 20s in the rear, the surrounds are 590s.

[Hammie]

If your seating is going to be off the back wall, then 7.1 would be a viable option. I would never recommend a 7.1 setup for a user who has seating directly against the back wall.

You can always start with a 5.1 speaker setup with a 7.1 receiver/pre/pro and then add the rear/back surrounds down the line. If you are running wires now, then wire for 7.1 so you don't need to do double work in the future.

[robert L]

After about a month of researching I'm getting close to a decision on spkrs for my new HT room.

The room is medium size I guess for HT...21'wide by 17' deep by 10' h, the screen will be on the 21' wall, and seating 13' from the screen and approx. 11'/12' from the LCR spkrs.

Initially I was considering a 7.1 system. Then I got some feedback (actually on this db) indicating a 5.1 system might be better because the depth of the room wasn't that much. Last week I demoed, the spkr combo I'm thinking of buying. This demo room was about 18' wide and 22' deep (nearly the reverse of mine). We played the same demo sample in 5.1 and 7.1, both sound very good, but 7.1 version did sound better with the surrounds in the mix.

The obvious remedy is to demo the surrounds in my HT room, but I wanted ask how much does room depth factor into the need or impact of surround spkrs? Also, the dealer mentioned I could go with the surrounds and forgo the rears in a 5.1 setup.

FWIW - the spkr setup I'm leaning towards is Studio 60s LCR (may step up to the 100s and go with 1 sub instead of 2), 20s in the rear, the surrounds are 590s.

can u put the screen on the 17' wall, that would be better, normal theaters are rectangular with the video display on the short wall, then 7.1 is the way to go!