6.1 setup using second centre as a rear, good/bad idea?

Paul.

Well-known member
Im moving house in about two weeks and have to tear my system down and rebuild it. To alleviate the inevitable misery, Im trying to think of upgrades I can do to as a 'reward' :)

I was thinking of going to a 7.1 setup, but as there will only be 2.5 meters between rear sides I thought that would be not such a great idea. My sofa will only be about a foot away from the back wall. My second idea was to use a second centre speaker as the 'back' channel in a 6.1 setup and use my BR1's as sides. Is this a good idea? Are centres suited to surround work in this way? Don't know how else I can buy a single BR or BX!

Will this realistically be a good upgrade, as it means loosing the ability to run my floor standers an bi-amped mode to do it. Music and Video use is about 50-50, and I don't think I'm anywhere near pushing the amp, so loosing bi-amping shouldn't be a problem.

Current setup is in the link in sig, new room is a similar distance Sofa --> TV, but significantly wider. Sides will still need to be next to the sofa though. Will be carpeted instead of wood though, which is nice.
 

Big Chris

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Apr 3, 2008
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Using a centre for the rear channel shouldn't cause any woes whatsoever.

Whether you'll prefer the sound over 5.1 with bi-amped fronts I can't possibly say. I don't know if you're able to borrow another speaker to try your new configuration before parting with any cash.

With regards choosing 6.1 over 7.1. The Onkyo has a setting in the menu somewhere which allows you to choose distance between the rear speakers (over 1.4m or under 1.4m IIRC). My own surround rears are about 1.8m apart.
 

Frank Harvey

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Jun 27, 2008
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Using a centre speaker as a rear won't cause any issues at all, other than it might sound a little different as far as timbre is concerned when compared to the BR1's. Your only alternative is to buy a pair of BR1's and just use a single one.

I thing using any speaker just behind your head might become a little annoying - if it was a couple of metres behind you it might be fine, but right up against you, I don't think so. You could put it higher, but my centre rears used to be higher, noticab.y higher than my other five speakers, which I also found didn't work too well. I would be tempted to stick with 5.1.

To test out 6.1, you could put your centre speaker at the back, tell your amp you have no centre so it puts centre info into the front left and right, and see how you think it sounds. At least that way, it won't cost you anything to find out how it sounds.
 

Paul.

Well-known member
Thanks for the advice chaps. I have put a cheeky £50 bid down on a br centre, figure If I don't like it I can move it on easily enough (assuming I win). Its worrying me slightly what you said David about positioning, but its not a lot of money for the experiment I figure.
 

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