Thread: BIG difference between 4.1 and 5.1 surround sound !!!!

I have 4.1 Klipsch on my desk driven by Audigy, I get full surround, sound comes from different directions and also get simulated center speaker. In other words, I get left/right and at the same time, get center in addition to the rear left/right. I am not missing any thing.
OTOH, in the living room, I have full system, 7.1 but then again, I am not setting 1.5 feet away from the screen like on my desk. In car environment, I would not care for a 5th speaker, as driver, you are setting on the left (or right), but not setting in the center so it would not make sense. Bottom line, it is not worth the $$$ or effort.

5.1 would make a difference with an external processor that can process delay timing!!!

I suppose the Creative software that comes with the Audigy 2 has delay timing

No, no delay timing. either way -4.1 or 5.1- you would need delay timing if and only IF you are realy, realy anal about it. I mean, you are setting in the front left side of the car, so you need to delay the front left speaker in relation to the rest of the speakers and same for rear left speaker. For 4.1, that should take care of the center speaker. For 5.1, you will also have to introduce some delay to center speaker. For a well balanced system you will need delay no matter what the source is. 4.1/5.1 have noting to do with delay, it is your location. Now, forget about all that non-sense, go out and get 4.1, make your life easy and spend less. You are setting in a car not in a living room, you have a lot of other accostical -spl!- issues to deal with, you would not solve at any cost.

Oh, and if you introduce delay, the system will be good for you but not for any one else in the car. get 4.1

being an audio monkey
the biggest difference is that in movie and most other 5.1 sources all the speech is sent through the center channel

this removes a lot of info from the surround channels
personally i dont like the sound of 5.1 to me it sounds "subjectivly" less surround then a 4.1 system which passes speech to all the speakers

I agree, but in a car environment, it is hard to justify the cost/time.
Just my 2 cents