What channels are heard in a comercial theater??

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Shadorne, thanx for your response. What I'm trying to find out is what channel is playing on those speakers on the side walls. In most home theaters, the front channels are in front of us and the surrounds are to the side slightly behind us and there are no speakers between the fronts and surrounds. In a movie theater, you've got speakers all along the side walls. Assuming the movie soundtrack has only 5 channels, do those speakers on the side play information from the front channels or rear channels?
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Steuspeed....so, if a guy is sitting in row 7, he probably has three or four pairs of speakers on the side walls in front of him that's playing rear channel tracks. Amazing, because I could not localize where the info was coming from....just total imersion. In my home theater my seat is 30 feet from the screen and I am cosidering another pair of speakers about ten feet in front of me along the side walls for more room fill....and I was wondering what channel to assign to those speakers. I have extra sets of speakers and amps to give this a try.

My 5.1 config as of now I have:

1 sub

....all speakers below are full range
1 center
2 fronts L&R floor standing to the side of the screen.
2 front side axis L&R : (along the side wall eight feet in front of the main front speakers, mounted on the wall 5 ft off the floor...Y-connected from front channel.
2 surrounds mounted 10 ft off the floor on side walls 5 ft behind seating.

Proposed:

2 surrounds L&R 10 ft in front of seating, mounted 5 ft off the floor, Y-connected from surround channels.

...to make it a true 7.1 config...

2 surround back L&R 20 feet behind seating, mounted 10 ft above seating area, centered 10 feet apart. I have to re-read my manual to see if the rear surrounds in a 7.1 config are engaged on 5.1 material.

My system sounds really good as-is....I'm just trying to see if I can get better.

The Dark Knight in IMAX started all of this insanity.

To all of you, Steuspeed, Naked and Shadorne...thank you for your input, I really appreciate it....again, Audiogon has been a godsend for me in helping me put together my 2-channel and home theater systems.

...thanks again....mitch
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Steuspeed....the photos aren't current on my system page. I think I owned a $49 dvd player when I took that photo. I'll update the photos in a few weeks.

I'm having a custom table on wheels built to hold the center channel at the height you've suggested....and I can wheel it out of the way when not in use.

I'm not going to go 7.1,... not enough movies out there with 7.1 content to justitfy it....besides, my processor does not engage the extra rear surrounds on 5.1 tracks, and I think that's a waste of speakers and amps if it's a rarely used channel....I'll just rig four speakers in surround in a 5.1 configuration. I would love to have six surround speakers...I've already split the signal via Y-connector to get four surrounds...I'm not sure about splitting it again to try and get six.

Can't move the bass towers forward in the position you suggest...just not enough room. It's not a dedicated theater room. When the screen drops, the bass towers are hidden...with the sub and the bass towers, I get plenty of solid good sounding bass with plenty to spare, no problem there.

Makes sense to move the fronts forward as you suggested....will do.

I'll experiment with the two front-side axis speakers.....I may try running the surround channel through them to see how it sounds.

Sending you some work-in-progress photos via private email.

Thanks again.......mitch
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