2.1 vs 3.1 ??

[BRISTOL86]

Hi Guys

For one reason or another I'm shying away from a 5.1 system and was planning on going for a 2.1 setup.

Having spoken with a friend who is up on these things, he has strongly advised me to get a centre speaker also.

Now I'm not an AV buff but he went into great detail about separating the dialog from the ambient sound etc. and I glazed over a little! Was looking for some more opinions.

I guess it does make sense in that considering I may choose to upgrade to 5.1 going forwards, I would only need to add the rear speakers.

I must admit I hadn't even considered 3.1 as an option, I had it in my head that it was either stereo or surround and that was that! Shows how out of touch i am!

If I did go down the 3.1 route how does the amp know you don't have rear speakers?

Sorry, I'm new to all this!

Edit - how easy is it to wall mount a centre speaker (i.e beneath a TV) ? I was planning to wall mount the two front speakers on brackets. Can you get brackets to mount a centre speaker on the wall?

[ASK1974]

There is merit to this if you're planning on using an AVR rather than stereo amplifier and what your friend says is basically correct. You don't mention the speakers you're planning to purchase but there are plenty of wall mounted (horizontal format) speakers out there. Thing is, if you go to the trouble of buying 6/8 of a home theatre it seems pretty pointless leaving out the rear speakers?

Edit

If you use an AVR you tell it the exact make up of your speakers and it'll take care of making best use of them. You also have the option to switch between stereo & multi-channel playback as you wish for music/TV viewing. The only argument against this is quality. You should be able to purchase a better sounding stereo amp for the same price as a half decent AVR. In my opinion though as long as you make a sensible choice of AVR the advantages of HDMI switching, audio calibration and surround sound vastly out weigh this for video systems, I'd only argue against if 'absolute' audio performance was desired and you were building an out-and-out Hi-Fi; in which case you probably wouldn't be using wall mounted speakers anyway.

Edited by ASK1974 on Saturday 28th March 07:39

[BRISTOL86]

ASK1974 said:

There is merit to this if you're planning on using an AVR rather than stereo amplifier and what your friend says is basically correct. You don't mention the speakers you're planning to purchase but there are plenty of wall mounted (horizontal format) speakers out there. Thing is, if you go to the trouble of buying 6/8 of a home theatre it seems pretty pointless leaving out the rear speakers?

Edit

If you use an AVR you tell it the exact make up of your speakers and it'll take care of making best use of them. You also have the option to switch between stereo & multi-channel playback as you wish for music/TV viewing. The only argument against this is quality. You should be able to purchase a better sounding stereo amp for the same price as a half decent AVR. In my opinion though as long as you make a sensible choice of AVR the advantages of HDMI switching, audio calibration and surround sound vastly out weigh this for video systems, I'd only argue against if 'absolute' audio performance was desired and you were building an out-and-out Hi-Fi; in which case you probably wouldn't be using wall mounted speakers anyway.

Edited by ASK1974 on Saturday 28th March 07:39

Thanks, appreciate that.

In a nutshell, the lady isn't keen on a full on surround system featuring rear speakers. This is the best compromise IMO. I presumed that my options were 2.1 or 5.1, I hadn't considered the separate addition of a centre speaker until speaking to my friend. Then he played me some scenes from a movie through his system (5.1 with AVR) in both stereo and DTS and the benefits of the dialog being separated from the ambient sounds was very noticeable even for a relative AV luddite like myself!

Re the decision between AVR and stereo amp - the system will probably be used 75% for TV and Video and 25% for Audio, so seems to be the right compromise to make. When I'm using it for audio it will be Airplayed via Spotify or iTunes from my MacBook or iPhone, which will be more than good enough, quality wise, for me.

Essentially the whole point of the system is to be a noticeable upgrade vs TV sound, which I'm sure I'd achieve whether it was a 2.1 or 3.1 setup, however for the sake of another £100-£150 the addition of a centre speaker certainly seems - on the face of it - that it would be money well spent.

Going off on a tangent slightly, will a good AVR automatically detect what sort of audio the source material is using? For example if I watch a Blu-Ray I'd expect it to make the full use of the 3.1 setup I had, whereas if I was watching something on ITV I'm guessing it would just be in stereo and come out of the two "normal" speakers?

You may have gathered I'm still learning about all this

[OldSkoolRS]

If you are going to the trouble of adding a centre speakers I would just add that IMHO you should ensure that it is a perfect match for the left/right speakers and that you don't have it pushed back into an AV stand pointing at your feet. Otherwise any benefits will be largely lost by poor sound matching with the left/right speakers and/or poor location of the centre.

FWIW I run a 4.1 set up in my conservatory, since the left/rights are so close together it isn't worth adding a centre. I have no problems hearing dialogue clearly against background sounds/music with this set up. I also ran my main system without a centre while I saved up for the extra MK MK150 speaker. I almost didn't bother buying the centre as I found that when sat in the main seat (ie mine ) it sounded like I had a centre anyway, so it was more for the benefit of the other seats that are off to the side slightly.

[BRISTOL86]

OldSkoolRS said:

If you are going to the trouble of adding a centre speakers I would just add that IMHO you should ensure that it is a perfect match for the left/right speakers and that you don't have it pushed back into an AV stand pointing at your feet. Otherwise any benefits will be largely lost by poor sound matching with the left/right speakers and/or poor location of the centre.

FWIW I run a 4.1 set up in my conservatory, since the left/rights are so close together it isn't worth adding a centre. I have no problems hearing dialogue clearly against background sounds/music with this set up. I also ran my main system without a centre while I saved up for the extra MK MK150 speaker. I almost didn't bother buying the centre as I found that when sat in the main seat (ie mine ) it sounded like I had a centre anyway, so it was more for the benefit of the other seats that are off to the side slightly.

Thanks.

My plan was wall mounted TV with the left and right speakers either side (also wall mounted) then centre speaker either wall mounted below TV or on top of a media unit at floor level, so centre would be approx 2 - 2.5ft off the ground if on the unit, maybe 8-12 inches higher if wall mounted.

Does that sound OK?

[OldSkoolRS]

Personally I'd wall mount the centre rather than have it on a media unit, the sound will be more consistent with the left/right speakers then. Ideally you should have them as close as practical to the same height.

[BRISTOL86]

Yeah I do like the idea of wall mounting the centre, trouble is having to put the TV higher to accommodate it, I'm worried mounting it too high will be a big mistake!

[telecat]

Personally I just use HiFi. The DVD is connected to my Valve amp and the Speakers are more than capable of rocking the floor!! Sometimes less is more.