Are Rear Surround Speakers Worth It?

Comments · 343

• ST

  @stampede8681 · 1 year ago

  Most surprising part of this video is that this dude has 2 home theaters in his house😂

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• JA

  @jason_mc77 · 1 year ago

  In a 5 speaker setup  your "side" surrounds should be placed behind you at an angle, basically splitting the difference between your side and rear speaker placement. Pretty sure that's the recommended Dolby placement for 5.1.4, most likely for the very reasons you concluded too

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• GS

  @GSAproductions · 1 year ago

  I always thought that the optional speakers were the side, not the rear speakers

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• DE

  @derceto125 · 1 year ago

  I made the upgrade recently from 5.1 to 7.1 (7.1.4 coming soon). My surrounds were at the recommended position for 5.1, so to the sides but slightly behind the listening position. When I added the back surrounds, I moved the sides forward to be in line with the listening position, so I have fresh experience of the difference between properly configured 5.1 and 7.1 setup. What I heard immediately, is that sonically the space behind me became vastly expanded. The soundscape became three dimensional. Of course, no new sound appeared, but the position of the sounds became much more clear and refined and suddenly they had depth, not just a vague direction.

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• MA

  @markbee4238 · 1 year ago

  I went from 5.2.4 to 7.2.4. Most of the time the difference is subtle.  I think you miss the back surrounds when they are not there more than appreciate them when they are there. For me the most telling demo was the dolby Amaze demo. When the bird wing flutter circles the room, i really felt the hole in the back of the room with 5.2.4. It just didn't sound like a smooth transition. When i switched to 7.2.4 it finally felt complete and smooth.

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• FR

  @froggyfrogboy911 · 1 year ago

  Somebody sneaking around our basement windows, while we were watching a horror movie! My son and I paused the movie and looking out the bsmt windows, we ran upstairs to the back door and windows, even turned on outside lights. We rewound the movie a few times, it was whispering from the atmos and rear speakers. This is not the first time these rear speakers have scared me during a horror movie.  War movies like; 1917, All Quiet and Dunkirk sound amazing with 5.1.2! Thanks for this review, on point!

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• GA

  @gab7344 · 1 year ago (edited)

  I was thinking the same lately after watching a few movies recently feeling disappointed with lack of sound coming from surrounds and rears. I was questioning my system, speakers, speaker placement, should I add more acoustic panels.ect. WOW! After just watching the New Mutants on 4k, there's nothing wrong with my system, speakers or placement ect. There's a lot of demo worthy scenes in the movie. Even my little svs pb1000 pros came alive and had a work out. This made me realize it's the source of material you are playing. I feel probably only maybe 40 percent of movies really use the surround, rear and Atmos speakers really well.

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• CH

  @christofg9710 · 1 year ago (edited)

  The difference between 5.1 and 7.1 is not just disabling the rears. 5.1 has a different speaker location, the speakers need to be placed behind you (in your corners). It is normal that there is information at the back when you only have speakers at your side. So your test doesn’t really tell the difference between 7.1 and 5.1.

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• TR

  @trauma50disaster1 · 1 year ago

  I'd suggest finding scenes in the woods or nature in movies.  Brave early on when she is walking in the forest, and SW Ep 2 when the jedi land on naboo.  There are lots of other nature scenes, but people don't tend to use them as they think they need a big action sequence, often those have music mixed in.  I find the subtle birds, water, winds and sounds from the forest allow me to find individual sounds from the speakers.

  4

• GE

  @geezer2tech154 · 1 year ago

  Great experiment! Appreciate the effort involved in accounting for all the variables.

  1

• BR

  @br1ella129 · 1 year ago

  Placement is key — if you're doing it right, the soundstage will be similar. The main reason to have more than five floor channels is room size.

  4

• TE

  @Tech2C · 1 year ago

  In your tiny theatre room, try moving the side surrounds to 80 degrees, and tilt both side and rear surrounds to the listening positions. Trust me u will be delighted :)

  1