Is 7.1 better than 5.1

Here is my experience. I have had both 7.1 and 5.1. The issue for me is that I have a large, open room where my setup is. Ceilings are cathedral and slanted and the room is not symmetrical. It's open space is something like 18x25 with ceilings at 9 feet and going up to the open 2nd floor.

I called my local dealer about setup and he said that he personally is not a fan of 7.1 vs 5.1. However, in my situation, he said he not only recommends it but that I should really make it happen because of the volume of space I need to fill with sound. I can tell you that once I went to the 7.1 setup he was right.

The addition of the rear two really made things come more alive. When you have a good setup the 7.1 really sings. Now, I don't even really have high-end speakers for my rear surrounds. They are only Cambridge soundworks cubes. But you have a DVD that my Anthem processes with THX and pumps the surround rears and it's just spectacular.

Now, I'm really, really happy with how my Anthem AVM20 handles the 7.1 channels. My previous lower-end Marantz didn't come close to the Anthem's sound.

I've purchased some stuff here on audiogon over the years and I've started a blog to chronicle my experiences: http://pooraudiophile.blogspot.com

I'm going to be talking about how I setup my 7.1 surrounds with Cat5 runs.

Anyway, my response is that if you have a larger room, you will likely notice a fantastic improvement as I did. In terms of practicality, yes it's a pain to run stuff, but I have come up with a lower-cost solution that I'm really happy with!

Anyway,

Go with the 5.1 and use the back channels to bi amplify your front speakers. The back channels have the same sound as the front.

Yes, your processor will matrix and fill in the back two channels.

This reminds me of the purist two channel crowd. Break out and join the 7.1 crowd!!

KG

my biggest gripe about 5.1 is when there is some object (or talking person) moving from the front to the back by the side. with my long shoebox room, the object simply warped from the front to the back.

I suppose having an extra pair of speaker in between the front and the back will make the transition smoother. Is it worth it? I don't come across too many of that kind of scenes.

I shelved my 7.1 denon/paradigm setup for 5.1 cj/Dali arrangement and prefer the 5.1 due to quality of amp/speakers. I also rent lots of bluray from netflix and most are still 5.1 DTS (which sounds great)
Maybe with the improved bluray audio codecs its time to try 7.1 again.
This weekend I will try adding the studio 470 dipoles to the 5.1 mix, and then the studio 20s to see what happens. Only problem is the CJ amp is 5.1, may be a synchro issue with using the denon 5803 to power the surrounds. ?