I've searched and found a few threads that touched on the subject, but nothing went into great detail. I'm hoping those with a dedicated theater are more likely to use this configuration....
I'm talking about multiple side surrounds (not including the rear surrounds). At least 2 or more speakers located to the sides of the listener. I believe its done in movie theaters this way and looking at everyones beautiful theaters, I would think that some of you have to do this also.
I have a long narrow theater (12X24) in a 7.1 setup. Unfortunately my side surrounds are located only about 6ft away. This tends to make them stand out from the rest of the system that is virtually invisible. Don't say Dipole cause I don't like them. Ive been experimenting with my Denon receiver. If you set the rears to non-matrix it plays the exact material from the left side surround to the left rear surround and the same with right side. I notice a more dispersed sound and have been liking it more than IIx when playing 5.1 material.

Who's using it?
What would be a good distance for the speakers to be apart?(I would be using 2)
Where exactly should they be located?(I imagine the main listening position should be the center)
Any negatives to something like this? (delay problems, inaccurate sound stage etc...)

Anything else I missed?
Thanks for any info...

I currently do not have a setup with multi-side surrounds, but in my next theater I have thought about using the more than two side surround speakers as well (along with two center channels).

Which Denon do you have? If you have a Denon with the Audyssey room EQ, have you used it? I have having the same problems until a week after I got my Denon and took the 15 minutes to setup the room EQ. Now, everything is well blended.

Regardless, I would think if your sides are over powering and you are using single pole speakers, you might want to change the height of the speakers on the side walls to help tame them a bit.

Other than that, I know you said you dislike dipole's, but IMO, when I compare my dipole setup to both of my friends setups using single pole sides, my rear sound effects do seem more as effects and not direct sounds. Just my opinion.

I currently do not have a setup with multi-side surrounds, but in my next theater I have thought about using the more than two side surround speakers as well (along with two center channels).

Which Denon do you have? If you have a Denon with the Audyssey room EQ, have you used it? I have having the same problems until a week after I got my Denon and took the 15 minutes to setup the room EQ. Now, everything is well blended.

Regardless, I would think if your sides are over powering and you are using single pole speakers, you might want to change the height of the speakers on the side walls to help tame them a bit.

Other than that, I know you said you dislike dipole's, but IMO, when I compare my dipole setup to both of my friends setups using single pole sides, my rear sound effects do seem more as effects and not direct sounds. Just my opinion.

Denon 3806 and yes Audessey helped. Its not horrible, but every now and than I look up at the speaker.... every other speaker is invisible and I believe its the distance away I sit from it (6ft) and the distance that the side surrounds are from the front and back speaker(12ft) that dont let it blend well. I've also noticed that playing a discrete 7.1 title(Blu ray) also has helped it.
My surround speakers have the ability to switch between dipole/monopole/bipole and if Im not mistaken dipole was created to recreate what numerous side surrounds do at the movie theater... so I figure why not just do that if you got the room an budget for it?

Well, yes. In a way dipoles where created to do what multiple side speakers do in a movie theater in a much smaller space. I love my dipole/bipole speakers because even when listening to music in 5 channel stereo, with my eyes closed I can't locate my side speakers.

Are you side speakers placed slightly behind your main seating or directly off to the side? Just curious, what speakers do you have that allow you to switch between dipole/bipole/monopole?

Well, yes. In a way dipoles where created to do what multiple side speakers do in a movie theater in a much smaller space. I love my dipole/bipole speakers because even when listening to music in 5 channel stereo, with my eyes closed I can't locate my side speakers.

Are you side speakers placed slightly behind your main seating or directly off to the side? Just curious, what speakers do you have that allow you to switch between dipole/bipole/monopole?

To the side.
Heres the speaker(I will be uprading them soon).
http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/store/category.cgi?category=spk_surround&item=c1s305zz

One thing you do need to mindful of. Depending on your setup, if you add more speakers to you side channels, in most cases that will change the ohms load your amp needs to push. You could cause some damage to you system unless you take the proper steps to balance your speaker ohms load.

One thing you do need to mindful of. Depending on your setup, if you add more speakers to you side channels, in most cases that will change the ohms load your amp needs to push. You could cause some damage to you system unless you take the proper steps to balance your speaker ohms load.


Technically I think you would probably be wanting to be using pre-amps in this case. Probably could get away with it like dual subs, y split the RCA cable pre-out to 2 amps. I never thought of this, I would have considered it in my HT.

Technically I think you would probably be wanting to be using pre-amps in this case. Probably could get away with it like dual subs, y split the RCA cable pre-out to 2 amps. I never thought of this, I would have considered it in my HT.

I would definetley use an amp, although Denon does allow 2 side surrounds speaker outputs on some of there receivers. Must just cut the power in half(since you would be cutting the volume, I wonder if you would need an amp?).

Why couldn't you just wire them in series? Denon's are capable of 4 ohm loads so you shouldn't have a problem either way, but wiring them in series should work just fine. I was a huge direct radiating fan until I listened to the QS8's. Amazing quadpolar design sounds great, even on multichannel listening.

Bump...

Is anybody doing this?

Well, I am going to do this. I have another post where the design of my theater prevents my from placing the 7.1 rear channel speakers on the back wall. Hence, I am going with two sets of side surrounds for row 1 and row 2 and 1 rear center channel for a 6.1 setup (which I do have room for). I intend to home run the side surrounds to my receiver.

Well, I am going to do this. I have another post where the design of my theater prevents my from placing the 7.1 rear channel speakers on the back wall. Hence, I am going with two sets of side surrounds for row 1 and row 2 and 1 rear center channel for a 6.1 setup (which I do have room for). I intend to home run the side surrounds to my receiver.

Sounds like it should work...

I have dual side surround arrays (small Optimus Pro LX5 speakers) in my theater which is 21x13. 1st set about 6 ft high and a foot arrears of 1st seating area. 2nd set about 4 ft back same height parallel to 2nd seating area (would have mounted it back a foot but had construction constraints.) Have a 3rd seating area near rear wall which has 2 rear surrounds mounted upon it. Dual set has good immersive surround effect for entire theater. No issues with delays (negligable in a side array IMHO.) I know some processors also directly support dual side arrays (Lexicon?) A Marantz 4300 receiver surround output (80w p/chan) drives 2 speakers in series and no problems with clipping/power.

Shamus, got your PM, here is my take:

I originally used the A, B, A+B back from my 3805, and continue to use it on my 4308.

I have a "typical" 5.1 setup, with my regular surrounds to the left and right on the wall as Klipsch's regular wide dispersion surrounds.

I use these as my A's for movies and regular TV watching.

In the rear "corners", i have floorstanding speakers I use as my B's for 5.1 channel music and SACDs.

this way, I can have 2 different sets of surrounds for 2 different purposes.

Sometimes, for video cames (call of duty and what not), i have A+B together just for kicks. (Yes, this splits the amplification, but the information going to the surrounds isn't much anyway, so it's not too bad, regarding my question to Jeff, this was to further engage the amplification to the surrounds.

I also have a rear cetner for 6.1 going for games sometimes, though i'd prefer a 7.1 to really help seperate the rears (having the surround left and right matrixed into 1 rear center doesn't seem as great as having 2 rears back there with each one mirroring their respective surround speaker for more seperation)

As to your specific case, having a long theater with mutliple seating and having 2 sets of side surrounds for each "row", having he A+B with the same speakers for each row is definately an option.

however, because they are sharing an amp, it's tough to adjust them and calibrate them to their specific row. having them seperately amplified as their own channel would make calibration MUCH better.

let me know any other questions / concerns / topics for discussion i can say more on. I think this feature is so great and would love to hear more uses and ideas and how people implement it.

Thanks... I see. Your actually using the a+b as it was intended, one for music, one for movies.

Ever try hooking up your floorstanding to the back surrounds?