7.1 Speakers

7.1 Speakers

7.1 Speakers are all the rage in home theater entertainment systems. Generally speaking, most home theater systems are comprised of a center channel, a pair of left and right speakers, side speakers (or surround sound) speakers, and a subwoofer. Each set of speakers in a 7.1 Speakers setup has a different job to perform. The center channel provides you with a crisp channel to highlight the movies dialogue. Optimum surround sound home theater reproduction really places some heavy demands on the center channel speaker, which in many respects is the main speaker in the system and often handles 50% or more of the program material. Normally you position this speaker either on top or just below the screen, and even behind the screen in those systems sporting an acoustically transparent screen.

The left and right speakers in the 7.1 Speakers System carry the bulk of the sound and music. Most sound effects, and the musical score as well as a good portion of the background sounds. These are typically your largest and hence most expensive pair of speakers in your 7.1 Speakers System. They have the greatest tonal range, and mid-low to high range sounds are all handled by this powerful pair of speakers.

The surround speaker component of a 7.1 Speakers System opens up the sound stage and allow you to experience those effects that put you in the directly in the thick of things, cars and motorcycles approaching from all sides during a car chase scene, spaceships whizzing by and warping all around you, as well as the frightening sounds of the jungle while on safari. This is done with sets of speakers in front of you as well as in back of you (for those creaking doors found in once scene or another in most horror movies).

Finally, the subwoofers bring the booming bass sounds to your 7.1 Speakers System, creating those chest-pounding explosions and bringing to life all manner of thuds and crashes. Positioning of the subwoofer does not really matter all that much as the human ear does not accurately position low frequency sounds and its the vibrations that actually work their magic. The subwoofer is the “.1″ in “7.1″, meaning 7 speakers and one subwoofer (as it really isn’t a traditional speaker).

7.1 Speakers add a more real and enveloping sound and open up the soundstage to allow for the illusion that you are part of the film. Some enthusiasts do not feel that the rear speakers are necessary at all as all DVDs have no more than a 5.1 soundtrack. Some newer high end receivers can translate a 5.1 Speakers signal into a 7.1 Speakers signal (such as Dolby Pro-Logic II). This is done by using mathematical algorithms to create a separate 6th audio channel that is then pumped to one or two rear speakers (if they are present).

At this point 7.1 Speakers  become a very nice addition, especially if you had a couple of extra speakers you could throw in the back for the rare occasions they are needed. Matching timbre with the rest of the speakers is not very important when adding these rear speakers, so really any decent loudspeakers should be more than adequate.

With Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, these formats hold much more data and make it possible to add 7 or more discrete channels (with each channel having its own separate and distinct signal), plus a low frequency effects channel for your subwoofer.This makes 7.1 Speakers a much more attractive proposition and can greatly enhance any film made to take advantage of them.

At this point fewer than about 20% of Blu-Ray releases have a 7.1 Speakers Audio format, studios are aware that most people still have 5.1 systems, but this trend is changing and would speculate that in just a few years 7.1 Speakers will be the standard audio format for movie releases and home theaters and perhaps 9.1 is not far away.

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