There's no substitute for evenly spaced speakers at ear level and a minimum of room correction. Even with my smallish home theater space, I would never go back to 5.1.
In my experience the key to decent 7.1 is matching speakers (no dipole surrounds) and not depending completely on automatic room correction. I'm not a professional installer but I've have set up a few systems for family and friends with very satisfactory results.
The most difficult was a listening position against the wall. LCR on the same plane and as close as possible to the display, The sides on stands directly to the side of the listening position and the rears mounted high in the ceilings corners aimed down at the listening position.
After the subs EQ program I ran the correction using the distance, volume, and the bass management. Manually adjusted out the EQ down to 200 Hz to taste.
Next comes fine tuning using my favorite surround queues from Master Commander (a 7.1 must).
In my experience the key to decent 7.1 is matching speakers (no dipole surrounds) and not depending completely on automatic room correction. I'm not a professional installer but I've have set up a few systems for family and friends with very satisfactory results.
The most difficult was a listening position against the wall. LCR on the same plane and as close as possible to the display, The sides on stands directly to the side of the listening position and the rears mounted high in the ceilings corners aimed down at the listening position.
After the subs EQ program I ran the correction using the distance, volume, and the bass management. Manually adjusted out the EQ down to 200 Hz to taste.
Next comes fine tuning using my favorite surround queues from Master Commander (a 7.1 must).