Specifications

SHOULD YOU GET A 5.1 OR 7.1 SYSTEM?

Our industry is continually coming up with creative ways for you to spend more

money on your home theater speaker system. First, there was 5.1. This consisted of

a left, center, right, 2 speakers for the surrounds, and a subwoofer. Then came 7.1,

which added 2 additional speakers for the rear. After that, 7.2 added an additional

subwoofer. And they’re still at it. Recently, they’ve introduced Dolby Atmos, which in-

corporates even more speakers. Because it’s so new, we’ll need some time to evalu-

ate Dolby Atmos before and if we recommend it. We’ll update this in the future.

Speaker manufacturers like us should be thrilled! If things keep going the way

they are, we may only need one or two customers to purchase an entire speaker pro-

duction run. But frankly, we think this is getting ridiculous.

Many speakers don’t image all that well, which makes it more desirable to

have a 7.1 system to help place the sound elements better. With RSL speakers it’s

different. Because of their imaging, you’re able to get an immersive experience with

just a 5.1 system. A 7.1 RSL system helps to pinpoint the sound very slightly better

and that’s what use for our personal systems. For most people, a good 5.1 system

will provide thrilling movie and musical performances.

Adding a second subwoofer normally shouldn’t be necessary. However, it can

be considered under the following circumstances:

1. Your room is extremely large.

2. If your room has very uneven bass response, carefully placing two sub-

woofers can often fill in the gaps for a more even bass distribution.

3. For some people enough bass is never enough.

Some have asked about height and width speakers. Movies on DVD and Blu-

ray do not come with separate tracks for height and width. The tracks are synthe-

sized in your audio/video receiver (we’ll refer to it from now on as AVR). Besides the

extra speakers, you’ll need extra amplifiers. We have yet to be convinced that it is

worth the trouble and expense of extra height and width speakers.

The bottom line, for most situations, we recommend a 5.1 system. Many current

AVRs are designed for 7.1 systems. If you use it with a 5.1 system, you will have an

extra 2 channels left over to drive speakers in another room or RSL outdoors speak-

ers.

5.1

7.1