5.1 vs 7.1

The smoothness you hear is the result of the extra speakers - effectively as an effect through some part of the room, each "move" is a smaller increment so the change of speaker location is not as pronounced.

Very often those speakers are not used for panning effects but to provide extra ambience - you are inside a sub - you don't really notice it but it colors your impression. Just as a subwoofer does when its not thumping away doing dinosaurs and bombs.

AVR makers are producing 7.1 in anticpation of future Blu Ray Disc 7.1 production. So far, there are only about 25 BDs w/ 7.1 and about 10 HD-DVD (and there won't be anymore of those).

If BDs really catch on as a consumer preference over SDVD (so far, they have not), I believe eventually all BDs will be 7.1.

Just because there isnt technically 7.1 material doesnt mean you wont benefit from its use, in a larger room the extra speakers and matrixed info does make for a better and more exciting experience. What size room has more to say about the proper choice than anything listed here so far IMO. I have 2 surround systems, 5.1 works best in living room but 7.1 works best in my man cave, its all about size.

>I was wondering if there is a huge difference between using a 5.1 or a 7.1 speaker system?

If you're not using dipole side surrounds and have processing (like Lexicon Logic 7) which intelligently routes the surround channels from 5.1 and Dolby Surround mixes, it's a quantum improvement in immersion. Not quite as significant as going from a good stereo pair with a Dolby Surround track (or down-mix) which extends out nearly 180 degrees to 5.1 but still substantial.

Simple Dolby Digital THX-EX or DTS-ES isn't that interesting. A few sound tracks put a few effects right behind you.

Dipole side surrouns get most of the way there except for the THX-EX/DTS-ES tricks.

It all depends on the size of your room and your seating position. If your room is large enough to benefit from 7.1 and you can place surrounds speakers BEHIND you as well as on the sides, then it would be worth it.

There are increasingly more Blu-ray discs coming out with 7.1 soundtracks and there is no harm in future-proofing.

If you have a good processor, even 5.1 soundtracks would some more immersive with a 7.1 set-up. But if this going to break your bank or you expect to listen to 7.1 soundtracks almost exclusively anytime soon, then 7.1 is probably not right for you.

One thing is that if you starting from scratch and building the system into your room, might as well add cabling for those "height" channels that will be above the left and right fronts for the under-development 9.1 Dolby and DTS formats!

In five years, 5.1 will be history and the topic of this thread will be "7.1 vs. 9.1".