IsleOfMan, I would love to be able to share your thought process, as I think that groundwork would lead to more people having the same level of discretion for audio as I do.  That said, I think you assume too much of the typical consumer.  I DON’T think that people would spend the money to go “up market” for a better 5.1 system, when they can boast having a 7.1 system for the same/less money.  The consumers determine the market and the manufacturer’s have to cater to their wants.  Your average person wants 7.1 instead of 5.1, they want a “1000w” HTiB instead of a “500w” component system, they want a V6 Mustang with stripes and other body accessories instead of a stock GT, they want 20” rims on their Nissan Altima instead of a factory equipped Maxima, they want a Jagerbomb instead of a fine Scotch.  Look around, you will find everyday examples of polished turds that give people the chance to boast having more than the regular version of the same thing.

That is why Onkyo and Yamaha (and countless others in this industry and beyond) continue to release features that you and I deem unnecessary, distorted, gimmicky, etc.

And you sound like the people who think they need everything a consumer culture tells them the need…

you sound like the people who said we don’t need the internet….

I really don’t buy in to matrix decoding extra channels, especially from 5.1 source material… PLIIx decoding to 7.1 on top of 5.1 material muddies the surround field too much for my tastes.  I can see the benefit for theaters with multiple wide rows of seating where folks on the edges are outside of the imaging sweets pot of a 5.1 arrangement, but even in these sittuations, making things better for those outside the sweetspot ends up comrpmising the surround sound field for those in the sweet spot. 

Now we’re doing this for the main speakers as well?  Yamaha has been pushing this for years, and now the newest version of ProLogic, PLIIz, is going in a similar direction… this really worries me.  There are tons of people who try to shoehorn 7.1 speaker arrangements into rooms where they don’t belong, with speakers directly above the listening position and/or seating directly against the back wall.  Now with Dolby pushing a height/presence arrangement, you’re going to see people shoehorning even more speakers into spaces where those extra channels will do more harm than good. 

For those who say that these types of extreme setups will only end up in higher-end dedicated theaters, tell me why the first PLIIz AVR is going to be the Onkyo SR607, a decidedly entry-middle market unit?  Good job AV industry, let’s push some more newest-greatest features on to consumers to get them to buy newest-greatest electronics and more speakers instead of educating on what will sound best in a given situation. 

Why doesn’t the industry understand that, with some education, people would probably move their purchases up market where margins are higher, putting their entire budget towards a quality 5.1 system instead of a mediocre 7.1/9.1/11.1, making the mfgs more money in the process?