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Question for the Pros!


powerplay007

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Hi all. I got a question for the pros. I recently bought a new system which includes: 

Front Sound Stage (RP8000F's - RP504C (Center) SVS PB3000 (1sub) | - RP600M's (surround/r surround) - SVS Prime Elevation (rear height/Atmos) and a Denon 4700H.

My question is should I use the RP600M's as Rear Surround or Just Surround on the inputs on the Denon?

 

I don't really have any space behind my seating area but I do have them slightly set behind and angled toward my 2 theater seats (pics attached). I definitely don't have a room set up to accommodate side surrounds but could potentially add front Atmos in the future. RP600m's may be overkill for how I am using them but I got a great deal on them and couldn't pass them up. I know my system has a long way to go as I'm just trying to learn everything on the Denon and so far it's been challenging for sure. Your feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance. 

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1 hour ago, powerplay007 said:

Front Sound Stage (RP8000F's - RP504C (Center) SVS PB3000 (1sub) | - RP600M's (surround/r surround) - SVS Prime Elevation (rear height/Atmos) and a Denon 4700H.

My question is should I use the RP600M's as Rear Surround or Just Surround on the inputs on the Denon?

 

The RP600M's should be plugged into the surround channel outputs and then detected as surrounds on your Denon during Audyssey set-up. Rear surround channels will be applied if you add more speakers, but you probably don't really need them, because your present system should work out very well..

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I agree with @Khornukopia, if I understand your current setup correctly, you're running a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos setup with the RP-600's set as surrounds (which means they are positioned correctly) and the SVS Elevations set as Atmos heights (which means the are fine where they are too). So to answer your question directly, you would connect the RP-600's to the "Surround" outputs on the Denon. The only time you would need the Rear Surround outputs on the Denon is if you upgraded to a 7.1.2 setup by adding additional rear surround speakers, but as @Khornukopia says, you don't need these, especially since you're sitting so close to the rear wall. I don't think you'd get much additional benefit from rear surrounds, and would rather invest in a second set of atmos heights when you start getting upgradetitus again... 🙂

 

If you do want to make a simple improvement to your current setup, I would consider ditching that side table in-between the two theatre seats, and push the seats next to each other (no gap). Then add two smaller side tables on the outside of each seat to replace the table you removed from the center. This might not give you the look you're going for, but would add a number of valuable improvements in my opinion, including:

 

  • Putting the two seats closer to the center of the sound field and thereby closer to the sweet spot
  • Moving both seats further away from the surround speakers and atmos heights
  • The RP-600 surrounds might be able to be angled more towards the listening position and thereby serve both seats better from both sides (surrounds are usually next to or slightly behind the main listening position on the side wall, but where you have them is just fine as well)
  • Easier to hold the wife or girlfriend's hand... 😉

I hope this helps...

 

Brendon

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The speakers are technically behind you, which will then make more sense to have the speakers connected to your rear surround ports.

 

Have you considered placing those seats right beside each other? The table can be placed in front of the middle armrests or just removed completely. That way, you make more space on each side, giving you the opportunity to angel your speakers directly to the side of your seats at a 90 degree angle and connect them to your side surround ports and then have a true 5.1.2

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On 1/26/2021 at 7:32 AM, HenrikTJ said:

The speakers are technically behind you, which will then make more sense to...

 

Logically you are correct based on the physical placement, but most home theater equipment instructions recommend the "surround" connections with the 5.1 arrangement because of the channel lay-out of typical recorded material.

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12 hours ago, Khornukopia said:

Logically you are correct based on the physical placement, but most home theater equipment instructions recommend the "surround" connections with the 5.1 arrangement because of the channel lay-out of typical recorded material.

 

Yes, I agree with @Khornukopia. In my experience, there is usually more sound mixed into the surround channels than the rear surround. You can put the surround speakers on the rear wall, but you should still set them as surrounds, rather than rear surrounds. 5.1 includes "surrounds" while 7.1 adds the "rear surrounds" in addition to the surrounds... your receiver might be clever enough to figure this all out, but I wouldn't take the risk of confusing the format if I were you... 🙂

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23 hours ago, Khornukopia said:

 

Logically you are correct based on the physical placement, but most home theater equipment instructions recommend the "surround" connections with the 5.1 arrangement because of the channel lay-out of typical recorded material.

 

It really doesnt matter what is recommended if the speakers are placed incorrectly. Should powerplay choose to keep the speaker placement as depicted in the pictures, having them configured as rear surround would make much more sense even though side surrounds is what you need in order to upgrade from 3.0 to 5.0. Speaker placement is key not only for a good experience, but more importantly for a correct experience. 

 

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11 hours ago, inMotionGraphics said:

 

Yes, I agree with @Khornukopia. In my experience, there is usually more sound mixed into the surround channels than the rear surround. You can put the surround speakers on the rear wall, but you should still set them as surrounds, rather than rear surrounds. 5.1 includes "surrounds" while 7.1 adds the "rear surrounds" in addition to the surrounds... your receiver might be clever enough to figure this all out, but I wouldn't take the risk of confusing the format if I were you... 🙂

 

Yes, its true that there is more sound meant for the side surrounds as opposed to the rear surrounds mixed into the soundtrack of most or any given movie. This, however, doesnt help the listening experience. There is a correct placement for every speaker in a system, and these placements are by no means set in stone and can therefore be offset by a certain amount of degrees here and there. What you cannot do, is place a speaker in a rear surround placement whilst have them hooked up to an AVR or prepro as side surrounds. Im sorry, but what you proposed in your reply is simply wrong and ill advised.

 

Should your room not have the width for side surrounds, but have the length for rear surrounds. Your only options would be to a) abandon any thoughts of surround speakers, b) at least get some rear surrounds, or c) get those creative juices flowing

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14 hours ago, HenrikTJ said:

What you cannot do, is place a speaker in a rear surround placement whilst have them hooked up to an AVR or prepro as side surrounds. Im sorry, but what you proposed in your reply is simply wrong and ill advised.

 

Fair enough... I wouldn't want to be giving anyone misleading or incorrect advise. @powerplay007, I suggest you proceed with caution then and try and figure out which setup actually works better... at the end of the day you need to do what works best for your system, in your room and suits your preferences best. 

 

14 hours ago, HenrikTJ said:

Should your room not have the width for side surrounds, but have the length for rear surrounds. Your only options would be to a) abandon any thoughts of surround speakers, b) at least get some rear surrounds, or c) get those creative juices flowing

 

@HenrikTJ, I think you might be approaching this a little rigidly to be honest... firstly, I had this exact setup before I upgraded from 5 to 7 bed channels. In other words I had the receiver set to "Surrounds" as was recommended by Yamaha, but I put the surround speakers on my rear wall because it suited the room better at the time. I have to be honest, I never felt like I was missing anything or that anything was out of place or unnatural. When I eventually upgraded to 7 bed channels, with surrounds on the side walls and rear surrounds where my surrounds previously were on the back wall, I have to be honest, I hardly noticed a dramatic improvement to the experience. The ground breaking change only came when I upgraded to Dolby Atmos by adding the in-ceiling height speakers.

 

@powerplay007, I suggest you run some tests with movies that contain a lot of rear effects (and multi-channel music) and try and figure out how your receiver handles the two different surround channel configurations. My gut tells me that the receiver is clever enough to mix both a 5.1 and a 7.1 sound track into both the surround and rear surround channels if you only speakers connected to one of those channels without throwing anything away, but if I were you, I'd want to make sure of that before designating your surround speakers as rear surrounds... 🙂

 

In my opinion, there is no good reason to throw away ANY sound effects, just because your speakers are on the back wall, so either it will make no difference at all, or you'd be better off designating your rear speakers as surrounds if the receiver is going to discard effects that aren't allocated to the actual rear surround channels... yikes, that was a mouthful... I hope this hasn't confused you more... 😉

 

PS: If you do run the above tests, I'd love to know what the outcome is, as I am curious myself...

 

Thanks.

 

Brendon

 

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