Need some help setting up my home system!

[lumi38ca]

I currently have the synergy line F2 in front S2 surround and C2 Centre. I have a fairly large room and noticed not too much sound comming from the S2 surrund (even after adjusting through my Denon receiver) which are about half way in my room and slightly behind the seating area. I'm looking to add some more sound in the rears directly behind the eating area which about 8 feet away from the S2 surround

the attached picture will give you some idea

I was thinking of going with a pair of B2 bookshelf speakers.

Appreciate some feedback

Thanks

Paul

[oldbuckster]

Not sure about your question, but all movies aren't the same when it comes to surround sound, some are more defined than others, the speakers can only reproduce what's there to begin with ........................ Sometimes I play movies and wonder why I have 5.1...... no sound from rears at all, then others just shake the room, same with Concert DVD's, some you can hardly tell the surrounds are working, and others sounds like the singers are standing right beside you..............

[lumi38ca]

So may not make sense to install an additional set of speakers in the rear to get more sound?

Thanks

[DrWho]

Where is the listening position in that picture? I think you might need to angle your surrounds down a bit so that they're aimed directly at the listening position.

Going with rear surrounds is never a bad idea. The advantages of moving to 7.1 are usually dependant on the type of coverage you're getting in your room.

Also, you might want to make sure that you have your receiver and dvd player configured properly. You need to be using a digital connection between the dvd player and the receiver and you need to make sure the dvd player is outputting a dolby/dts signal. Sometimes they're set from the factory to only output stereo. And then you need to make sure the receiver is operating in a dolby or dts mode. You'll have to check the manual for your receiver to determine when this is the case. Usually they display something like "Dolby" or "DTS"....you do NOT want it to say "PL-IIX" or "Pro Logic" or "Neo:6" or anything like that. These modes are not "true" surround....what they do is take a stereo signal (or convert the multichannel signal to stereo) and then run some effects and do some weird crap to make it seem like you have surround. I don't mean to belabor the point, but this is very often the case when someone is complaining about lack of surround detail.

Hope this helps.

[LiveFreeAndRoam]

In addition to the suggestions in the previous posts, I have one other point for you to consider.

When you adjusted the S2 from your Denon, did you calibrate using the reciever's test tone and a sound pressure meter? If not, then I recommend the investment in the sound meter is worth its weight in gold. I used Audyssey MultiEQ XT for the initial calibration. This does quite a good job, and quickly gets each speaker close to calibration. However after further calibrating each speaker with the sound pressure meter, it made a signficant difference. Mostly each speaker needed between 3-6dB adjustments.

LFaR.