Surround setup basics

Only 7.1 setup i have used is the gigaworks one in my sig, however, i do know that in most setups people either buy pre built ones as it were or mix and match. Alot of audiophiles prefer the latter from what i have seen as they may like different brands for different things.

subwoofer placement is really a matter of choice, the best way is to get one that would fit in with the other speakers and just watch some favourite films and place it wehre you think best, not really a science to it.

all you need of an amp is that it has the required amount of inpouts and outputs and support the rigfht decoding features.

ah, not my area, i would just look for what's in your price range and features you need and perhaps check out a more specialised forum like avforums.

Onkyo and Denon are tops in my book for receivers. Yamaha is also very good and usually are the best bang for the buck.

You'll want a receiver with HDMI inputs as the latest and greatest 7.1 requires it. Dolby EX is a lesser version of 7.1 that'll work with optical, but for DTS HD and Dolby HD/uncompressed optical simply doesn't have the bandwidth for them.

Your 3 most important speakers are your left/right front and center. Try to get those "matched" if possible, or at least from the same brand. The center channel speaker is very important in DTS HD and Dolby HD as all the dialog basically goes through it.

Unless in an apt., a sub is 2nd most important. A crap sub just can't handle a good, loud movie. It moves to least important if you live above an elderly couple. As SS said, location is different for everyone. Some prefer a corner, some a flat wall, some even prefer behind them. Sometimes the sub's manual will suggest optimal placement from walls and stuff. Go with one with an amplifier, passive subs suck.

Your surrounds are least important as they only do "environmental" sounds, but don't cheap out here too much. Good tweeters/midrange are key IMO, and I recommend JBL, generally JBL excel in the tweeter dept.

I can assure you there is a huge difference between a standard DVD in a good 5.1 setup and DTS/Dolby HD 7.1 uncompressed on HD DVD/Blu ray in a good setup.

Another Question, what are the pros/cons of getting a speaker package, like say creative gigaworks S750 as a hypothetical example, over mix and matching?