Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems System for Movies 7.x vs 5.x

I am doing a major renovation on a home we just bought at the moment, and I am planning the audio.

What would everyone's opinion on a system on 7 vs 5 speakers?

I am very happy with music - a Trifield with 5 speakers are plenty. However, how much improvement would 7 speakers make utilising the Meridian line up?

I am looking putting a 8000SE front pair and the system will be based around that.

At the moment, the room is going to be 5.4 x 7 metres. However, we are thinking of making this bigger into a 8.9 x 7 area. We also have another option to us another space at 8x7m but it has cathedral ceiling and it is essentially open into the kitchen and where the piano seats so the total area in the room is 22x7m.

Any thoughts is much appreciated.

IMHO and IME going from 5 to 7 gives marginal benefits, but this may depend on the room size and (most) configuration (where are the seats, where the speakers).
You can 'make more difference' going from 5.1 to 5.2, or changing some speakers for better ones.
Dolby Atmos is still a bit of a mistery but one would think also with high ceilings there may be something good to go 5.2.1 instead of 7.1 from 5.1 (but this is pure guess from my side!).
Regards,
Josep

Go with 7.x definately in that room size. More enveloping Trifield and more enveloping movies. 7.x movies are clearly better mixed as well.

Your plan sounds a bit like the system I'm running.

I have a 9m x 5m room and find that tight-ish for 7.1, so 8.9m x 7m sounds about perfect for giving a bit more room to the sides.

Do I feel 7.1 makes a difference compared to 5.1? In my case it is hard to compare like for like. I went from 7ks at the rear - having them at the Dolby recommended 90 to 110 degrees relative to seating wasn't practical due to room width and speaker size - to M6s rear and sides. It is more enveloping and diffuse, but the high end is not quite as crisp compared to what was provided by the old 7ks. M6s run as small, whereas the 7ks ran as large; the literature says I shouldn't notice given the omni-directional nature of sub-80Hz bass but, for whatever reason, I do notice a dimminished scale.

My old pair of 7ks netted me 4 M6s, so I thought, sure, why not? If the 7ks could have been upgraded to EBA, I would have been just as happy keeping them as my only surrounds in 5.1.

Presumably, if enlarging your room, it would make sense to wire for 7.1 (or more) anyway.

DSP7k vs M6 is a bit unfair..

Usually the back speakers are closest to the sofa (the law of livingrooms). So I really appreciated when I went from DSP5000 to DSP7200.2 for back surrounds.

Another tip for when having back large speakers just behind the sofa is to point them at each other. That way you will get some sense of the stereo-image even though you are not exactly in the middle of the sofa. 90 degrees rotate towards each other.

The sides work mostly as to expand the soundstage. Point them so that they cross in front of the sofa for best image.

In this setting I find that all large and no filtering of the signal on back/sides in Trifield works best.

When 7.1 first came out a few years ago I spent an inordinate amount of time listening to 5.1 vs. 7.1 for movies and some classical music. For me 7.1 is modestly better and IMHO it's enough better to go the extra 2 channels if you have room. At the recently concluded CES I saw the Theta demo of Auro 3D With height channels and the Dolby Atmos with 7.1.4. Very impressive. If you can swing your bigger room, go for it.

Gary

I also found 7.0 to be better than 5.0 in my room.

It was a lot of DSP in a modest room though.

I am now 2.0.

The room the OP describes should handle 7.0 very well. Lots of choices for the surrounds depending on space, walls, furniture etc.

8kSE will be a stunning front though so to be honest I would care to much about the surround for music. Movies ok.

Hi, If you go for the larger area, does it open to your kitchen at the rear or the side?

I ask because I threw a lot of money continually upgrading 5.1 in a very large room where the space for the audio system was off to one side with bar and entertainment on the other. A systems costing a fraction of what I paid sounded better but in much smaller demo rooms.

Only after upgrading to 7.1 did it finally come together with the rears locking in the soundstage properly.

Hope it helps,

G

Many thanks for your input. It seems like 7.1 probably is worth it.

Looks like we have settled in with a media lounge size of 9x7, which would be shared with the Grand Piano.

Just thinking, but wouldn't the sound from the Meridian system cause some sort of resonance of the piano wires? Just remembering an experiment I used to do with my A level physics students to demonstrate resonance, I would get the music teacher to sing loudly into the school's grand and when he stopped the sound carried on!

Found the same with my guitar...

..and much more likely with a piano given the range of pitch. You might have to use some sort of damping when the piano is not in use.