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What Sort of Surround-Sound Setup Do You Have?

SV Staff  |  Jul 21, 2014

What Sort of Surround Sound Setup Do You Have? The new Dolby Atmos surround format that’s looming on the horizon got us thinking about surround-sound configurations and what’s most popular among Sound & Vision readers. Which leads us to our question of the week:

What sort of surround-sound setup do you have? Indicate below and tell us about your setup in Comments.

What Sort of Surround-Sound Setup Do You Have?
5.1/5.2 channels
59% (891 votes)
7.1/7.2 channels
30% (456 votes)
9.1/9.2 channels
3% (53 votes)
11.1/11.2 or more channels
2% (23 votes)
No surround for me. Good old-fashioned 2-channel stereo is all I need.
6% (96 votes)
Total votes: 1519

COMMENTS
Jeff Perrin's picture
Submitted by Jeff Perrin on July 21, 2014 - 9:42am

Voted 5.1, but will be upgrading two more rear speakers in-wall as soon as I get the time to install them! (My 7.1 receiver has been underutilized thus far...)

BobHD1's picture
Submitted by BobHD1 on July 21, 2014 - 9:50am

My speaker system includes two Def. Tech. BP-8060ST bipolar towers with powered, integrated 10" subs. It also includes a CS-8040HD center and SR-8040BP surrounds. This is the fourth system I've owned. It seems ideal for my current, small (12.5 X 16) theater room. It EQd well using my Pioneer SC-72 receiver's MCACC system (with a few post setup tweaks of course). Our last theater room was much larger and I employed a 7.1 system with a separate 12" sub in that one.

utopianemo's picture
Submitted by utopianemo on July 21, 2014 - 1:59pm

I had 5.1 until one of my speakers went bad. Now I have 3.1, until I upgrade. But Atmos is definitely a possibility for me.

TimmyS's picture
Submitted by TimmyS on July 21, 2014 - 2:54pm

In truth I have a 7.4 system..

Nothing like having 4 awesome subwoofers placed properly with the levels, phase and crossovers set properly.

Single .1 sub systems generally sound boomy once you get used to a .4 sub system.

Also the distortion is reduced tremendously!

Everyone must have four subwoofers!

BobHD1's picture
Submitted by BobHD1 on July 21, 2014 - 7:24pm

I believe that 7.4 indicates 4 separate bass channels. You can have 4 subs on a 7.1 system but I agree that in any case multiple subs sound better than 1.

docevil's picture
Submitted by docevil on July 21, 2014 - 3:09pm

Voted 11.1/11.2 but saw the object based surround coming when around the same time as I started my Home Theater Room build. As soon as I saw my local theater equip one of their screens with an UltraAVX setup I knew it was only a matter of time before that tech rolled into the Home Theater environment and as a result I wired and installed a 15.2 speaker setup but am only presently using 11.2 in a DTS NEO:X surround setup. I expect Dolby Atmos/DTS UHD to expand to a point where I will be able to use my center height and rear height speakers in the future.

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