Reason to buy a 7.2 receiver when you only have 5 speakers?

[roar]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

A bit rusty on the AV side of things since I've not really been into it since the days of laserdisc.

Was thinking about getting the Sony 1040 model which is a 7.2 configuration but was wondering if I should just get a 5.1 model instead.

Does a 7.2 system offer more power than all 5.1's?

Does the sound quality on offer from a 7.2 always beat a 5.1 system?


I will be using it for Blu rays, CD, SACD and FLAC 192/24. My step daughter might use MP3's with it. The speakers are Tannoy's and are of the bookshelf variety and I plan to buy a subwoofer at some stage.


These are the types of things I'm wanting to know.

Thanks for your time..

Richie.

5.1 systems, short of a HTIB may be hard to come by as it seems like most AVR manufactures are bound and determined to squeeze as many channels as possible into a unit. Much like rpatt, my processor is capable of more than 5.1 but that is all I run so I wouldn't worry about the extra channels going unused.

To answer the power question directly though, a 7.2 may very likely offer a greater overall wattage output than a 5.1 but if the additional channels aren't being used then you obviously won't see the benefit of the extra wattage... the only caveat to that being if the AVR would allow you to bi-amp the unused channels, this is something not offered in a lot of AVR's but I don't think your Tannoy's are bi-ampable anyway?

If your Tannoy's are bi-ampable and you'd like to use more power from a 7.2 AVR in a 5.1 setup I do know that the some of the Marantz models offer the feature as I was considering one not that long ago.

As far as sound quality goes... I'd argue the number of channels is unrelated to the quality of sound that those channels produce. Additional channels will give you more discrete sources of sound but not necessarily better quality of sound. The quality of sound an AVR produces has more to do with the quality of parts its built with and the software that drives those parts... and to be honest with you it is going to come down to a combination of what sound you prefer based on the combination of speakers (Your Tannoy's), components driving those speakers (The AVR), the sources you feed those components (Quality of the MP3 player/blu-ray player) and the quality of the recordigns of those sources... oh and lets throw in the acoustics of the room too , all of this is going to come down to what your ears tell you sounds best.