front wide speakers or front height speakers need help?

[markyboy156]

hi i am going to do the following 9.1 setup i have a onkyo 5009 monitor audio rx6 av package i want to use the rx6 as fronts centre speaker and surrounds as 5.1 then i want to add an additional rxfx rear speakers to make it 7.1 i have a pair of rx1 speakers that i want to use as either front height speakers or front wide speakers my question is would they be best as front height speakers or as front wide speakers what does everyone recommend i do need help asap please?

 

[RickyDeg]

Best tip, as always, is to simply test both out before you settle on which mode you like best with your content and in your room. I've heard quite a few demos on both width and height and in each I've personally prefered height, as it felt as though the 'space' increased to make walls and ceiling "disappear" - but it would very much depend on your own preferences and the room in question. No one can really tell you which mode is better than the other.

If you can spend time experimenting I'd simply recommend that. Height-speakers might be a bit tricky to test without permanently installing something but if you can get around that then do it. A friend of mine moved two tall bookcases and placed them on either side of the tv-cabinet then his height-speakers ontop of those just to test. He finally wall-mounted them.

Since your Onkyo is a 9-channel amp perhaps you have also considered running both height and width, unless the last two amps are already taken? I've heard alot of people say thats more effective than an additional pair of (back) surrounds.

 

[markyboy156]

hi so what you recommend is using front height speakers front wide speakers as well and not use the extra rear surrounds?

 

[RickyDeg]

Uhm, I think my post simply recommended experimentation

But if you go by the experts at Audyssey they have this to say about it:

"Research in human hearing shows that we can hear many more directions than what current systems provide. We use the direct sound to localize the direction of sources and the reflected sound to perceive the size of the soundstage. Experiments have shown that human localization is better in front than to the sides or behind. This means that for front-weighted content such as movies and most music, good engineering dictates that we employ more channels in the front hemisphere than the back. Imaging is also better horizontally than vertically and so good engineering also dictates that channels must first be added in the same plane as our ears before going to higher elevations."

http://www.audyssey.com/audio-technology/audyssey-dsx