To matrix or not to matrix?

[Drew664]

I'm currently playing around with speaker placement, and listening modes to see how they all can effect movies.

I started off with matrixing 5.1 mixes into 7.1 via the PLIIX movie mode. I enjoyed it, but was curious as to what just the 5.1 track would sound like. I've since disconnected my left and right surrounds, and made my left and right rear surrounds my new left and right for a 5.1 experience. With this I know listen to everything in Dolby Digital, and I'm enjoying it more than the PLIIX movie mode.

In a perfect world, I'd have my surrounds on the side, but slightly behind my seating. Unfortunately, my room layout will not permit this (to be functional).

Just curious whether or not people prefer the 5.1 tracks over the matrix'd 7.1 mix. What do you listen to?