Synergy across the front is strongly suggested for intuitive reasons .
The rears and surrounds use signals that are "manufactured" "fill-in" soundtracks without that same sensitivity. Hence same brand synergy is still preferred (nice to have ) but by no means system critical (need to have)
Recorded material other than 2 channel is primarily a manufactured multichannel recording . The movie soundtrack expansion from 5.1 to 7.1 has additional subtle "surround" effects introduced that are certainly only a nice-to-have at best.
Sure... I have the AIX pure PCM 7.1 format recordings showcasing that "sitting with the musicians" experience that has that initial demo listening interest.
The cold hard facts are that even this "pure" 7.1 audio performance provided by my ARCAM Bluray player feeding a separate high end 7.1 AV preamp/ precessor (driven by high end separate amps) still gets totally smoked by the performance provided by my high-end 2 channel CDP and integrated
The differences are not subtle.
Your takeaway:
Most BluRay concerts are only 5.1 in alternate CODEC formats.
Cable and satellite TV are still 5.1
Movie soundtracks are either 5.1 or 7.1 .... The latter "expanded format" still gets played on a 5.1 system; and whether you feel that you actually missing out on something is limited to a very small subtle esoteric difference that is a heavily biased anecdotal personal value judgement at best
7.1 is only a nice-to-have feature , not a mission critical feature.
The rears and surrounds use signals that are "manufactured" "fill-in" soundtracks without that same sensitivity. Hence same brand synergy is still preferred (nice to have ) but by no means system critical (need to have)
Recorded material other than 2 channel is primarily a manufactured multichannel recording . The movie soundtrack expansion from 5.1 to 7.1 has additional subtle "surround" effects introduced that are certainly only a nice-to-have at best.
Sure... I have the AIX pure PCM 7.1 format recordings showcasing that "sitting with the musicians" experience that has that initial demo listening interest.
The cold hard facts are that even this "pure" 7.1 audio performance provided by my ARCAM Bluray player feeding a separate high end 7.1 AV preamp/ precessor (driven by high end separate amps) still gets totally smoked by the performance provided by my high-end 2 channel CDP and integrated
The differences are not subtle.
Your takeaway:
Most BluRay concerts are only 5.1 in alternate CODEC formats.
Cable and satellite TV are still 5.1
Movie soundtracks are either 5.1 or 7.1 .... The latter "expanded format" still gets played on a 5.1 system; and whether you feel that you actually missing out on something is limited to a very small subtle esoteric difference that is a heavily biased anecdotal personal value judgement at best
7.1 is only a nice-to-have feature , not a mission critical feature.