Hi Lawrence,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I presume from what you're saying that it's better to ensure all speakers have ALT. I've found some 9s at a realistic price, so I'll go for them. With 5s and 9s, is there any benefit to adding surrounds - or would that be overkill do you think?

Thank you,

Simon

How much content in 7.1 do you have, that you can play on your setup?

MM

Hi,

Not much in reality, a few DVDs, and music via TIdal who have launched their 360 Audio service which is like Dolby Atmos for audio. Excuse my ignorance, but when playing movies in 5.1, will the surround speakers be silent, or also play whatever is coming out of the rears? apologies if that's a dumb question.

Thanks in advance for your help

No dumb questions!

If you play 7.1 content e.g. from a bluray, you hear different sound in all channels.

If you play a 5.1 source (or manually choose Speaker 5) you will hear the same sound from the rears as there is in the surrounds - means it will basicly be upmixed to 7.1.

(Please note - the ‘extra’ channels in a 5.1 setup are the surrounds - the extra in a 7.1 are the rears).

Not saying that you should not add some rears, but you’d probably benefit more, if you upgrade the surrounds from 8000 to e.g. BL9.

And please be aware, that the sound from any setup will depend a lot on the room/the sice of the room and the placement of the speakers - and of course on the settings as well.

My best proposal would be to try out e.g. some BL9’s as surrounds and the 8000 as rears to see what works.

MM

Brilliant - that is a great help. Thank you for explaining is so well. I will follow your advice.

Simon

....and please keep us updated how you get along.

MM