[Help] loudspeakers: quality or quantity?

[spoRv]

I can't imagine it being a massive problem if your surrounds (or side surrounds possibly) don't perfectly blend with your front/centre

...written by someone who is concerned about 2ms synch difference in tracks! (joking, you know!!!)

Seriously, my actual 5.1 are from same brand and family, have all the same tweeters and supertweeters, but midranges are different size - and related crossover points too - and I DO hear the difference in voice timbre when there is a front dialog pan.
So, getting a different brand with not even different midranges but also different type of tweeters for front wide would be a "punch in the face" - for example a pan from FL to SL would suddenly change timbre when reproduced by FW, then get back to same previous timbre when ended on SL.

Side note: I found an ad (now dunno if still available as it's expired) where there four dipole speakers - same brand, but different kind of tweeters, normal dome instead of ribbon, yet they could be (barely? viably?) used as surround + back surround... problem is, those 4 surrounds cost like the 5(+1) system!

[pipefan413]

I can't imagine it being a massive problem if your surrounds (or side surrounds possibly) don't perfectly blend with your front/centre

...written by someone who is concerned about 2ms synch difference in tracks! (joking, you know!!!)

Not because I can hear/see it, but because it didn't make logical sense to me and I wanted to understand what might be causing it. We've been over this! ;-)

Seriously, my actual 5.1 are from same brand and family, have all the same tweeters and supertweeters, but midranges are different size - and related crossover points too - and I DO hear the difference in voice timbre when there is a front dialog pan.
So, getting a different brand with not even different midranges but also different type of tweeters for front wide would be a "punch in the face" - for example a pan from FL to SL would suddenly change timbre when reproduced by FW, then get back to same previous timbre when ended on SL.

Side note: I found an ad (now dunno if still available as it's expired) where there four dipole speakers - same brand, but different kind of tweeters, normal dome instead of ribbon, yet they could be (barely? viably?) used as surround + back surround... problem is, those 4 surrounds cost like the 5(+1) system!

Sure, but I was primarily talking about using different back surrounds since it's arguably less common they'd be used to pan stuff moving from the front (although it does still happen occasionally).

[spoRv]

I hate myself... surfing on the usual classified ads site, and found a pair of speakers like the ones I used for surround - apart color - for next to nothing because they were two "left" ones - not a huge problem, because with net on it's almost impossible to say that... and I bought them!

It does not meant I've just decided, though... sure, I can stay with 7.1 for now (and eventually upgrade to 9.1/11.1 etc.) OR I can trade all so I can give less €€€ OR I can retain them as back speakers eventually OR sell the whole set for something more OR sell just these latter ones if I'll buy the high end and eventually find same surround OR...

I hate myself!

[captainsolo]

Good gear is most important. My receiver is a Onkyo nr626 and my setup is all vintage Klipsch which I picked up used for next to nothing. I was 5.1 for years and got a great deal on towers and jumped to 7.1. Personally I'd advise the next upgrade would be 7.1 which at first doesn't seem like much but adds much benefit and would get you up to modern standards as studios mix for 7.1 if not doing object based Atmos/DTS X. Most mixes don't utilize the tech fully anyways.

7.1 will also provide better decoding for 2.0 surround and 5.1 ex/ex tracks due to the improvements made by Dolby in their decoders.

[pipefan413]

7.1 will also provide better decoding for 2.0 surround and 5.1 ex/ex tracks due to the improvements made by Dolby in their decoders.

I feel compelled to ask what you mean by this. Better in what sense?

[MrBrown]

Yesterday I was able to listen to Ready Player One on a not perfect, but still very nice Dolby Atmos Home Theatre.
Quantity also is nice..

[spoRv]

Lately I watched quite some movies with my 5.1 system - also reviewing them in my mind to understand if I'd "need" to upgrade to better quality ones.

Even if I must admit I love those huge front speaker, and huge center, I finally decided to not upgrade (at least for now), but instead increasing the speaker number and upgrade to Atmos/DTS:X amplifier...

Why? Because listening to these action movies I felt sound quality was very good even at near reference level, with no distortion; I just missed some "envelope", that I'm sure I'll get with 7.1+ speaker system.

I'm sure the high-end system would sound better, but I asked myself: "how much better?" 10%? 100%? Maybe my hears are so bad that I can't even hear the difference, hence the actual sound quality of my speakers is good enough for them!

And yes, I'm aware that 7.1 movies are a small fraction - about 7% for 6.1/7.1 Vs 70% for 5.0/5.1, and maybe 1/2% for 3D audio - still with a, let's say, 7.1.4 system I can always listen to 5.1 movies.

Last thought: if only that system was 7.1 or additional speaker were not almost impossible to find out, maybe I could have made a different decision... and instant lotto would still allow me to get both systems!

[captainsolo]

7.1 will also provide better decoding for 2.0 surround and 5.1 ex/ex tracks due to the improvements made by Dolby in their decoders.

I feel compelled to ask what you mean by this. Better in what sense?

They improved all their algorithms for DPLII, further refined them on PLIIx and then apparently went even further with their new atmos era upmixing. If you have a 7.1 setup and set your receiver for first 5.1 and then do a test with the 7.1 system engaged you can tell an improvement in how the whole rear soundstage is handled. I did tons and tons of tests with all kinds of different material to look for any differences. Dolby doesn't talk about it much but there is some info scattered around press blurbs and such and forums where people mention the improvements in their processing. In fact starting with ProLogic home theater started to outstrip cinema decoders which to this day are still at Dolby SR as a standard.

For EX tracks you are supposed to engage the modern decoder as per Dolby instructions anyways.