is there a noticable diff. between 5.1 and 7.1 set up?

[JimPullan]

If the speaker configuration is correct for a 7.1 application, and you have four walls to work with, then you'll notice a nicer, enveloping experience. The best case scenario is configured as follows: Center, Left, and Right (direct radiating speakers) - across the front, Two direct radiating rear suround speakers AND two dipole SIDE surround speakers (firing three ways into the room) (lined up with your sofa to your left and right and even with and slightly above your ear level), then your subwoofer, making up a 7.1 surround sound system done right.

Many people don't have four walls to work with, so consider 6.1 (three across the front and three across the back).

Be aware though, that there is very little on DVD or Blu-ray that has encoded 6.1 or 7.1 descrete audio tracks. Most simply Matrix the sound into all the speakers (ie: Lexicon L7 processing). We MAY see 7.1 descrete audio coming on Blu-ray, with all the vast storage capacity available, on block-buster movies and concerts. The majority of releases from the studios is 5.1 . It is better to have an outstanding 5.1 speaker package, then a medeoicre 6 - 7.1 . [Jim]