Of course it was. More importantly, the greater immersion/envelopment was stable.

With 3 speakers across the front, I routinely get phantom imaging outside the soundstage and ocassionally get phantom imaging above the soundstage. However, it's not stable. If I move out of the sweet spot, the phantom images move with me (or collapse to the nearest front speaker).

With 5 or 7 speakers up front (heights and/or wides), imaging outside and above the soundstage always appears to come from those locations no matter where I'm sitting. No magic involved, just speakers at those locations (making it hard for those sounds to come from anywhere else).