5.1 vs 7.1 - worth the upgrade? opinions needed!

[Phate]

Hello all,

Quite a few of you know my setup, but for those that don't here it is:

Panny 50" plasma of sorts
Pioneer VSX-321 amp (I'm sure this is the model) (working solely from memory)
Acoustic Energy Aegis EVO floorstanders (fronts)
Acoustic Energy Aegis EVO III's bookshelf for my rears
Center I was given, its a wharfdale and my sub is on extended loan from Raymond Lin (long story, don't ask )

I've got decent cabling all round and the performance I am very pleased with overall, thinking about actually buying my own sub at some point in the future and replacing the center with an AE Aegis EVO to match the rest of my speakers.

So I'm very happy with my setup.

But to cut a long story short I have 2 spare bookshelf speakers which match my existing ones.

Now...I have no real use for these at the minute and in the future so I've had ideas for making my setup 7.1...

Basically, I'm looking for suggestions/arguments/comments for either side of the coin as to whether or not I should bother, for example would I see enough improvement vs the effort of running the cables properly etc.

Many thanks for the read and help!
Jake

 

[Phate]

Thanks for all the input.

I think I'm going to leave it for the time being, purely because if I do end up liking it, its a massive ball ache to pull the floor up and cable it all properly...when I have a decent system already.

Although I might be moving next year, so I'll keep the speakers and secretly plan a 7.1 setup next time