Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround

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witchdoctor

Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround
« on: 18 Jul 2017, 12:46 pm »
I am adding 4 additional speakers to my home theater setup as my processor maxes out at 11.1 channels. I am considering getting a Circle Surround processor to drive two additional surround speakers in the front of the room and two additional surround speakers in the back of the room. Does anyone have any experience with Circle Surround? It used to come standard and some old HT receivers and there are processors such as the one I linked to below. Thanks.


http://www.prosoundnetwork.com/new-products/gemini-sp-1-circle-surround-analog-processor/25436

Mr Peabody

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Re: Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround
« Reply #1 on: 20 Jul 2017, 01:36 pm »
I'm fairly certain that Gemini processor would not work in conjuction with your surround receiver/processor in a surround set up.  Besides the encoding would not be in the movie sountrac.  When watching movies the sound you hear should coincide with the action on the screen.  Actually, adding random speakers not accounted for in the soundtrack would most likely have a negative effect.  If you wanted all your current speakers on at once see if you have a setting called "stereo surround" or sometimes tagged "party" mode.

Why do you feel you need more speakers, is it room size?

You have 11.1, so do you already have Dolby Atmos?  If not, a better, yet possibly, more expensive solution, would be to go to a receiver/processor with Atmos which would give you the over head speakers.  Then the Atmos processor would have the encoding to pan the sound/effects correctly to those speakers as well as all your others in the set up.  The panning effect and emmersiveness is said to be stunning.

Really depends on what you are trying to achieve, more immersive sound or more speakers playing at once.

That Gemini piece takes a 2-channel signal and manipulates it to some kind of generic surround, looks to be more for DJ application. 

witchdoctor

Re: Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround
« Reply #2 on: 20 Jul 2017, 06:31 pm »
I'm fairly certain that Gemini processor would not work in conjuction with your surround receiver/processor in a surround set up.  Besides the encoding would not be in the movie sountrac.  When watching movies the sound you hear should coincide with the action on the screen.  Actually, adding random speakers not accounted for in the soundtrack would most likely have a negative effect.  If you wanted all your current speakers on at once see if you have a setting called "stereo surround" or sometimes tagged "party" mode.

Why do you feel you need more speakers, is it room size?

You have 11.1, so do you already have Dolby Atmos?  If not, a better, yet possibly, more expensive solution, would be to go to a receiver/processor with Atmos which would give you the over head speakers.  Then the Atmos processor would have the encoding to pan the sound/effects correctly to those speakers as well as all your others in the set up.  The panning effect and emmersiveness is said to be stunning.

Really depends on what you are trying to achieve, more immersive sound or more speakers playing at once.

That Gemini piece takes a 2-channel signal and manipulates it to some kind of generic surround, looks to be more for DJ application.

Thanks for the reply. I use the Marantz 7702 processor and listen primarily in Auro 3D 10.1.
My processor cannot engage my wide channels or my rear surround channels while listening in this mode. I can engage rear surrounds with atmos but not wide channels. I can engage wide channels and front height channles with DTS-Neural X but not rear height channels. 16 channel processors like the Trinnov or Datasat start at $15K. The Gemini unit is $50 and I was thinking of tinkering to see if I could engage all of my speakers together without spending $$$. Even if I engage my party mode my processor is limited to engaging a max of 11 speakers, I have to go into settings and select which ones.
 Thanks a lot for your feedback, much appreciated.

Mr Peabody

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Re: Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround
« Reply #3 on: 21 Jul 2017, 02:42 am »
You are welcome.  Nice processor.

You might try contacting Marantz support to see if there's any configuration you may not have found.  My friend has an 8802 with a boat load of speakers, I'll try to pick his brain, but I don't see him often.


Doublej

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Re: Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround
« Reply #4 on: 21 Jul 2017, 11:19 am »
You are welcome.  Nice processor.

You might try contacting Marantz support to see if there's any configuration you may not have found.  My friend has an 8802 with a boat load of speakers, I'll try to pick his brain, but I don't see him often.

And if the answer is no, ask them if one of their current processors can do what you want. IT might be time to look for a used Storm Audio processor.

witchdoctor

Re: Opinions Wanted on Circle Surround
« Reply #5 on: 21 Jul 2017, 10:52 pm »
And if the answer is no, ask them if one of their current processors can do what you want. IT might be time to look for a used Storm Audio processor.

That is the one I have my eye on  :D