Either a 5.1 or 7.1 setup for garage to watch sports

[gislands]

Hi all,
Pardon my newbie-ness as I do not know much about audio setups. I have a very basic and cheap Vizio 5.1 wireless setup in my living room (I know, gasp go the audiophiles). Anyways, it gets the job done.
I currently have 3 TV's mounted to the wall in the garage to watch sports. They each have their own receives, 2 joeys and a super joey all sent to a 3-1 toslink switcher that feeds a very cheap and basic Vizio 2.0 sound bar. I didn't have the money to do anything better a few months ago. But now I want to upgade and since it is a garage I can mount speakers anywhere! But I only watch sports out there so would a 7.1 or 7.2 be worth it and what is a 7.2 anyways? I get the .1 for the sub but what about the .2. Or should I just do a 5.1? Are any sports, like maybe the NFL encoded with 7.1 or 7.2? Anyways, I am willing to spend the extra on 7.1 or 7.2 if it will be worth it.
Thanks,
GIslands

 

[dfergie]

Your only going to get 5.1 sound from Dish anyway so stick with that...

 

[king3pj]

Hi all,
Pardon my newbie-ness as I do not know much about audio setups. I have a very basic and cheap Vizio 5.1 wireless setup in my living room (I know, gasp go the audiophiles). Anyways, it gets the job done.
I currently have 3 TV's mounted to the wall in the garage to watch sports. They each have their own receives, 2 joeys and a super joey all sent to a 3-1 toslink switcher that feeds a very cheap and basic Vizio 2.0 sound bar. I didn't have the money to do anything better a few months ago. But now I want to upgade and since it is a garage I can mount speakers anywhere! But I only watch sports out there so would a 7.1 or 7.2 be worth it and what is a 7.2 anyways? I get the .1 for the sub but what about the .2. Or should I just do a 5.1? Are any sports, like maybe the NFL encoded with 7.1 or 7.2? Anyways, I am willing to spend the extra on 7.1 or 7.2 if it will be worth it.
Thanks,
GIslands

I would save some money and go with 5.1. You won't be getting any sports broadcasts in 7.1 anyways. They are all broadcast in 5.1. FYI 7.2 would be 7 speakers and 2 subwoofers. The number after the decimal is the amount of subs.

 

[jayn_j]

The .2 just gets you a second sub output. Worthwhile in large rooms where a couple of subs can make a difference. The independent channels allows Audyssey to tune each one independently.
My opinion, not shared by all here is that there isn't much difference between 5.1 and 7.1 in a smaller room. First, few providers encode a 7.1 input, and I don't believe there would be any sports channel that does so. Thus the side and rear channels would be fed the same 5.1 signal and simply deepen the soundstage a bit.
My recommendation is to put the money into 5 better speakers, rather than 7 lesser ones. The sub is worthwhile and filling a garage would require a pretty good sub. Not sure of your budget, so specific recommendations are tough.

 

[gislands]

Thank you for all the quick replies. I guess mainly what I am looking for is a better "sound spread" if that makes sense. I flip between the 3 tv's on the wall with the 3 switcher so having the soundbar under the center tv is weird when you want to listen to the left or the right. Also keep in mind it's an $80ish soundbar. So in a 7.1 set up the side and rear feed the same, for example and usually crowd noise in sports? That might be a bit distracting coming from the sides. The area I am looking to fill is a square, about the size of a two car garage so 16 feet by 16 feet. And again, no movies on bluray at all.

 

[king3pj]

The .2 just gets you a second sub output. Worthwhile in large rooms where a couple of subs can make a difference. The independent channels allows Audyssey to tune each one independently.
My opinion, not shared by all here is that there isn't much difference between 5.1 and 7.1 in a smaller room. First, few providers encode a 7.1 input, and I don't believe there would be any sports channel that does so. Thus the side and rear channels would be fed the same 5.1 signal and simply deepen the soundstage a bit.
My recommendation is to put the money into 5 better speakers, rather than 7 lesser ones. The sub is worthwhile and filling a garage would require a pretty good sub. Not sure of your budget, so specific recommendations are tough.

I don't think you'll find much 7.1 outside of blu-ray movies. Even in that case, a lot of them are 5.1. For that reason I used your theory of going with 5 better speakers instead of 7 weaker ones. I'm content with the 5.1 setup I put together 3 or 4 years ago and I haven't felt the urge to upgrade yet.

 

[gislands]

I guess yes also I could use some recommendations on receivers and speakers. I would be happy to spend $300-500 total. And I really do not need any of the video switching component with the receiver. In fact I will have no video inputs plugged in to it at all as the 3 tv's all get their own independent dish receivers. Highly doubt I would bluetooth as I can just listen to the Sirius channels from the dish receivers.
I was looking at this Onkyo system but it is a 7.1 system.
Onkyo HT-S5600 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver/Speaker Package

 

[jayn_j]

Well, the extra 2 channels can be used as zone 2 speakers. Put them in the bathroom so guests can hear what is going on.

Seriously though, this might be a good candidate for shopping craigslist for a system being shed by some college student who got in over their head. Your quality needs are lower and you will get more bang for the buck used.

The problem with these HTIB units is always the speakers. They will tend to be weak and not have much character. No bass response at all from the 5, and the sub probably won't fill that space. Probably better than your soundbar, but that's not saying much.

 

[gislands]

Great, yeah I was wondering about the HTIB speakers. Can you recommend a good speaker set and receiver that are separate?
Thanks,
GIslands

 

[jayn_j]

That's the rub. I can do that, but to get reasonable performance, you need to move up a bit.

Reasonable receiver from Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha, Sony will run at least $250
5 speakers come in around starting at $400
Subwoofer worth having will start around $250.

So you are looking at double that price, maybe a little lower, but definitely above your $500 limit.

Anything less will have the "subwoofer" supplying the upper bass and low midrange and the main speakers dropping off around 200 Hz. IMO, they tend to sound thin and tinny.

Here is a system I would try to build:

Speaker set:
I like Klipsch. The speakers are very efficient, with a lot of sound from a low power amp. Some complain they are too bright, but I think that is a feature for sports.
Amazon product ASIN B008CMVY7QThese are popular with many members:
Amazon product ASIN B001202C44

Amplifier:
I think this one could meet your needs: Amazon product ASIN B0077V8930
Bit pricier, but a good choice: Amazon product ASIN B00B7X2OV2

 

[king3pj]

I agree with what you are saying but lets not forget that this is to watch football in a garage. Football can sound great in surround sound but you aren't going to get the booming bass that requires a good sub. If he was trying to set up a system for blu-ray movies, general TV, video games, etc I would agree that he could do much better by getting his components separately.

For just watching football from Dish I'm not sure the quality difference would be worth paying double the price of that HTiB.

 

[jayn_j]

I hear you, but I have listened to football on HTIB systems and then on component ones the same day. It makes a big difference to me. The HTIB systems sound thin to me. Note, I wasn't suggesting a $1500 Hsu sub here. I was looking to a speaker system that would go down low enough in the upper bass that the sound doesn't seem to come from the sub, and where the crowd rumble is hear able.
Note, the systems I quoted would come in between $475 - $529, which was at the admittedly upper end of his range.
I also recommended a couple of cheaper options in PM.

 

[king3pj]

I hear you, but I have listened to football on HTIB systems and then on component ones the same day. It makes a big difference to me. The HTIB systems sound thin to me. Note, I wasn't suggesting a $1500 Hsu sub here. I was looking to a speaker system that would go down low enough in the upper bass that the sound doesn't seem to come from the sub, and where the crowd rumble is hear able.
Note, the systems I quoted would come in between $475 - $529, which was at the admittedly upper end of his range.
I also recommended a couple of cheaper options in PM.

That makes sense. When I first decided to get myself a surround sound setup about 4 years ago I originally looked at a HTiB almost exactly like the one he posted. I was going to get it because I didn't know anything about speakers and it at least came with a real Onkyo AVR with HDMI inputs and support for lossless codecs unlike a lot of the sony/panasonic units that had built in blu-ray players.

The guys at AVS forums strongly urged me against that and helped me put together a 5.1 system for about $1000 that I absolutely love. Now, some people here have AVRs that cost that much on their own not including any of the speakers. Mine isn't a pro theater system by any means but it's more than good enough for my needs. I love using it for blu-ray movies and surround sound gaming. I won't be upgrading anything until I have a 4K display and some 4K content to watch on it. Even then I will just be replacing the AVR for something with 4k HDMI input support and it won't be for a few years. My speakers and sub are here to stay.

Quality surround sound is a thing that can really change your entertainment setup. I find myself way more excited for quality lossless audio tracks than blu-ray picture quality. This is something way to many people are missing out on.