[JohnR]

Thinking about some electronics upgrading. But leaning to sticking with 5.1 for now. What do you think?

[Bob in St. Louis]

From what I've been told (by people much smarter than me) that you need a BIG room to take full advantage of 7.1.
I've been happy with 5.1 all these years and don't feel I'm missing anything.

Seems to me the movie companies are not taking advantage of the extra channels in 5.1 anyway, so I doubt they're taking 7.1 seriously. Sure there's "some" content, but is it enough to justify the added expense of two more speakers and wiring?

Bob

[JohnR]

Hi Bob, our HT setup is pretty small, I'm about 2.5m from the front/center and less to the surround. (The room is larger but the HT doesn't occupy all of it). I did notice that most discs we were renting were 5.1... (when I looked)

[Bob in St. Louis]

I saved a link to a list of all 7.1 with all the various sound formats. I'f you're interested, I'll find it for you.
There is actually quite a bit of discs out there in 7.1, but I'm skeptical how much content there really is on there.
It sounds to me like your room would be too small. Those side speakers would be too close.

Bob

[mcgsxr]

It may come down to how happy surround makes you. 

If you're loving the thrills of sound zinging around, perhaps 7.1 would bring improvements.

For me, and I built this room up so I had the chance to wire it however I wanted, I went with good 5.1 vs stretching to achieve 7.1 on the same budget.  I felt that most of the movies I would watch would be well served with 5.1, and having enjoyed it for around 2 years now, I feel the right decision was made.

I can in the future easily wire 2 more rear speakers, but at present have no interest in spending the $.

[youravhandyman]

Personally I think you may get a more immersive  experience with the new Dolby ATMOS and AURO 3D formats than you would with 7.1.  I have installed both and found the Dolby ATMOS experience more satisfying.  But again this falls to personal preference.  The sound is no longer on a plane at ear level but all around and above you.  The technology is still relatively new and, of course, expensive at this time but price and availability should improve.

[Phil A]

Room size and configuration certainly is a factor.  The main system is 9.2 but the bedroom is 5.1 as is another spare system and the guest room upstairs is 4.1.  I had in-ceiling speakers installed in the main system last week to be Atmos ready (waiting to see what shakes out with DTS:X too).  In the one spare system I have 5.1, the surrounds are in ceiling and so I'll be able to Atmos by adding side surrounds.  I found that for the small bedroom that 5.1 system is, it is very satisfying for HT.  If not for the new formats, I don't feel the need to change that 5.1 system to more.

[JonnyFive]

Stereo is a huge improvement from mono.  5.1 is a huge improvement from stereo (for movies).  I have 7.1 with heights and the effect is very subtle over 5.1. 

My hope is that with the new Atmos/Auro/DTS formats coming out, that discrete height channels will give a big improvement over 5.1.  If so, I would mount another pair of heights above my rears and do 5.1.4, but there will be no drilling in the ceiling for me.

tl;dr A fully optimized 5.1 gets you 90-95% of the performance of a 7.1 with two matrixed channels.  Is it worth it?  Only you can decide.