Am I understanding 5.1 surround correctly?

[STUDIO 2000]

Hi,

I recently purchased some RS-62's since I have been listening to movies in 3 channel all this time. So now I finally got a 5.1 system:) The reason why I purchased the RS-62 is because of the wide dispersion that fulfills a 180 degree angle since I did have a problem with placement. I tried to put them on the sides, but my room is unforgiving and I dont have any wall on the left side, there is a curtain there. For this reason I placed the RS-62 on the back walls as suggested as a placement if one cannot put it on the sides. This brings me to my question:

Question:

I have a 7.1 LMC-1 pre/pro, and there is LS and RS ( I assume left surround/right surround) and there is alos LBS and RBS (left back surround and right back surround) What would the 5.1 standard be. Do I hook my RS-62's up as RS and LS for 5.1 even though they are on the back wall?

Thanks

Dave

[jamesV]

Great pickup of the RS-62. As far as how to hook them up to the LMC, I would say LS and RS. Those channels should be considered 4 and 5 and the LBS and RBS would be considered channels 6 and 7.

BTW how does the setup sound with the LMC? I currently have an Outlaw 750 and the upgrade bug is starting to bit.

James

[STUDIO 2000]

JamesV

Thanks! Thats how I have it set up as RS and LS. I just wanted to make sure.

Now that I have my system all hooked up and running, I am extremely happy with the results. A few weeks ago, I was mentioning that I was not too happy with my set up as it didnt sound warm enough to me with the Emotiva-IPS 1 and the LMC-1 combo. However, since I have received my Rs-62's that was the missing link for me. I guess what I was describing as full or warm is basically the sounds stage of having surrounds. Now my system sounds full and rich and I cannot be happier with this IPS-1 and LMC-1 combo. Now note that I have the Rf-7 speakers. If you look at a search in these threads there was a user at one time that had Rf-7's and bough the LMC-1 and had major hissing problems. He was not happy and sent it back to Emotiva. He received another LMC-1 and the hiss was still there. This put my off by this combo. However I have heard users that have not had any issues with this unit. The LMC-1 has a few minor quirks in the sense of how it displays room distance settings. For instance I will set my front as 11 feet from my listening position and it will show on the display 22 feet. It doubles it, but its just a display error. I only have a DVD player hooked up to this via optical. I am now very happy with the LMC-1 and RF-7 set up. My home theatre sounds incredible! This is jaw dropping sound to me. I calibrated my room, put up sound treatments, set all speakers via SPL meter, configured distance and I could not be happier with this unit and I dont experience any hiss with my LMC-1 and RF-7 whatsoever. The price was also right on this unit, and the reason why I bought it is so that I can upgrade to the new MMC-2 unit when it comes out later this year, that will have full HDMI 1.3 capability. However based on the sound I am getting from this unit, I dont really see an upgrade to MMC2 for quite some time, but I know that I can still get the 40% off later any time when I am ready for the new MMC2. If I can give sound characteristics of the system right now it will have to be a full rich sound, yet very natural and detailed. I lstened to War of the Worlds last night and we can feel the sound move right through our seats. It felt like we were there. Before the RS-62 it sounded good, but now with these RS-62's its absolutely amazing.

Thanks

Dave

[jamesV]

Dave,

That is great to hear. I might be in the market for an amp in a few months. I am trying to get my second 2-channel room setup first. There really might be something to the upgrade bug after all.

I remembered after I posted that you were the one asking about the placement for the RS-62 since you have the opening on the right wall and the only place was the rear wall, behind the listening position.

James

[WMcD]

Congrats on getting the system to work.

By way of background, it is my recall that the term 5.1 was used very loosely years ago. Is it 5.1 channels recorded discretely or 5.1 speakers? The ambiguity continues.

Early on, there were only two audio channels recorded. The center was extracted by L plus R and the surround was extracted from L minus R. The surround extraction was fed to two surround speakers but it was mono even if delayed by 10 mS. The bass or .1 was just mono bass below 70 Hz. Movies were mixed to help with the extraction. But this is why VHS tapes (two channel) could work for "surround".

Later, and I'm not quite sure the extent of this, digital recording were encoded with up to 6 channels. That is post DVD or CD technology. You can have discrete L and R surround and discrete center. The 0.1 as recorded is just low bass.

This 0.1 special effects channel is another tricky issue. Again, sometimes it is a discrete channel on a recording. It gets sent to the mains, if they are set large, and you don't have a sub connected. On the other hand on a given receiver probably has an SE output which is just jargon for what is sent to the sub. Deep bass from any recording gets sent there. All this depends on the menu setting on the receiver.

But, then, 6.1 and 7.1 receivers came out. The extra output in 6.1 was just a mono mix of the two surrounds and was meant to go on the back wall. I image the two extra in 7.1 was similar but maybe with some extra blending. I'd think you could have used all the speakers to play a VHS or DVD movie, or even an LP, assuming the receiver has the processor to mix things.

The point is, you're probably exactly right to use the LS and RS for primary surround.

Of course, please do Google and check your owner's manual.

gil