Why should I go from four speakers to a 5.1 setup?

I don't understand how I would get better sound from four dinky little speakers and just one woofer which IMO is just a way for the manufacturers to increase their profit margin since the cost of the components used is MUCH less than the cost of two pair of quality loudspeakers. My sony dts reciever allows me to "disable" the sub woofer and center channel and send the sound to the front and rear speakers each of which has a subwoofer midrange and tweeter. Basically I send the dolby signal to my reciever which decodes it and sends the sub woofer and center channels equally to all four large speakers. So I would suggest to anyone who has a nice set of "old" speakers to forget a 5.1 speaker set and instead invest the money into a high power reciever capable of decoding the dolby signal and with the power to handle running four large speakers.

i find the 5th channel (center speaker) to be a nice addition expectually when watching movies. with music, it sounds like the vocals are coming out of the center channel and the instruments on the left and right. it all comes down to what u listen, in some cases, stereo would be best, like how i have it in my car.

4 speaker set ups simply cannot accurately portray dialogue and straight ahead effects like a 5.1 one system. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.

Downmixing the 5.1 signal is even worse(especially the center channel). It wouldnt be so bad if it diverted the center channel to the front speakers only, but all 4? That completely ruins audio positioning. Center channels are a crucial aspect of surround sound, regardless of whether they produce the same "bang" as the other channels.

btw, you're solution is kind of stupid. Why invest in a high quality home theater reciever just to use 4 channels? You DO realize that you can buy quality speakers for surround sound systems, right? I don't understand where you get this impression that you can't get good center channels and subwoofers.

^Couldn't have said it better. Even though I am a VERY cheap person who likes to find deals out of the garbage, I find that the center channel is crucial to get all the vocals in-front of you like it is meant to. If it gets split up into all 4 speakers, to me personally, it would sound VERY weird.

i own a 200$ center and have it turned off at all times because it sounds worse with it on than it off. his setup may differ from mine but with the center disabled mine sounds MUCH better.

It all depends on your main speakers and were your sitting. IF you have speakers with good imaging and sound stage you'll be able get by without a center (and in most cases be better off). The catch is you have to be sitting in the sweet spot right between the mains.

The only reason a center speaker exists is for home theater setups were the audience is way off to the left or right. Thats why they have them in movie theaters by the way. The reason they got carried over to home theaters is really for those setups were you wont be able to sit between the mains. So they use a center speaker to lock the dialog to the screen for those people sitting to the sides (ever wonder why most centers are of the MTM configuration and lay on their side?). Now you might be saying well, how can you get a solid center image if you dont have a center speaker? If the receiver is doing its job right and you have the speakers setup correctly you can do it pretty easily. A phatom center setting adds the signal for the center speaker equally between the left and right front speakers. Now if you are sitting in the sweet spot it will focus the sound directly in front of you. But if your way off the the left it will mess up the illusion (hence the need for a center when you have people off to one side or the other). Beleive it or not most setups (if done correctly) with a phatom center will sound better that with an actual center since there are no problems with timbre matching between the center and mains. The pans from left to center to right would be totally seemless.

Now granted if you using speakers that dont image very well and in general arent up to the task you will probably wont get a good center image at all. But for the most part a good quality speaker will be able to do the job just fine.

I personally dont use a center in my setup. I'm usually the only one in my room watching a movie and I have it setup to were i'm in the sweet spot. The dialog is perfectly located right were the screen is and I didnt ever feel the need for a center. But if you have a wierd setup were your forced to sit to one side or have multiple people sitting in differnet locations to watch movies then you may want one.


Ryan

^I never noticed that before, but its completly true. Sucks to have an apartment that is the most visited in the whole gated community. Lots of people = Lots of people watching a movie all over the place = Need for a center speaker . So I guess thats just my situation.

If you need to please a large group of people, then go with a center. If it is just yourself, then a center wouldn't be needed. Learn something new everyday.