I needed a home theater receiver capable of many more things than my "pre -HDMI,"  old power hoss was capable of doing.

In the business of retail, I find that, unimaginably, 3D nonsense has made many really cool things from a year or two ago very obsolete.

So obsolete, in fact, that even teh Denon website has failed me. So here is the residual Amazon listing of my "new receiver":

my new Denon HT receiver I bought New In The Box for two hundred bucks


OK, so I have changed my stuff over the ages since i first started on this forum.


I am struggling with the notion of adding a second set of surrounds (completing teh 7.1 spec.)  I have never had the option of 7.1 surround format in the past.

Of course, I have become very curious.  Am I MISSING anything?

I know that this is not a movie forum, but in the interest of getting the most informed responses regarding efficient high quality sound, does anyone have an opinion on the 7.1 surround issue when compared to being "mostly satisfied" with old school 5.1 surround.

I can use either with my new receiver (and as I have experienced in the past week - it sounds great as it is, in 5.1 mode) and I am wondering if anyone has actually found 7.1 to be a benefit over 5.1.

I would welcome any responses, even if you have only tried the simplest of HTIBs, compared between  the two surround formats.

Yeah, thanks for your comment.

I have done probably the same googling and come to the same conclusion as you have. No one in that circle seems to know very much at all, except as it may apply to their own tiny world.

I am hoping for some "experienced" people to offer something more for me to chew on, aside from the asinine crap I typically see on the totally clueless "home theater" sites, online.

This is a smart bunch here and if a few have played around with any of this movie/HT stuff, I feel that my best advice is to come from my "old friends" here.

Surely some here besides myself are movie buffs who enjoy big movie sound.

I can appreciate your opinion.   That was the main point of my post.

Thank you.

My HT movie system is more Pro Audio than Hi Fi, but It is very efficient and musical, etc. I actually started my original post with a description of my speaker system, but the post ran too long. I feared that no one would read it, so I ditched all the irritating details.

Suffice it to say that, as it is (fifteens, mid horns and bullets, up front - twelves and bullets out back, scary bi-amped 3KW sub system) my speakers are decent sounding and more efficient than most HT systems.

My room is very dead and dry with stuffed furniture everywhere, padded carpet and heavy drapes.  No chance of any additional curing of the acoustics, due to my abiding WAF sensitivities.

Basically, the room is damn good as it is, if you do not mind "super dead."

However, the reason for my question is that I have now moved into blu-ray and HD, with much greater decoding possibilities.

I am still curious as to why so many "average" people go the 7.1 route these days. Is it merely salesmanship or is there something that an average set of ears can hear that tempts the senses when the major movies are playing at room shaking levels?

Just so that you know ... it will not cost me any more than a bit of labor and materials to increase to 7.1 with the same matching  pro-audio components I already have become satisfied with using in my living room.

I have many more twelves and many more bullets to bring into play, all matching what I already have.

The only minor problem is that winter is coming on and I will have to wait a while before I have an outdoor shop again to properly build an additional/matching pair of speaker enclosures.


Again, thanks for trying to help.