Poll: What's your current Atmos speaker layout?

[jimfisheye]

What I'm afraid is that If the mixer just listen on headphones (as the mass people will do) we may loose some great opportunities of discrete, panning, moving, Much Tops/Wides engaged, etc. for the people like us that like that. Steven Wilson checks both with 7.1.4 and with Headphones using the 'different' renderer from Apple. He even makes additional 5.1 mixes to be checked and adapted better.

Fortunately, so far, there are many mixes that seems to be done with proper reference by the mixer, as they sound very good and engage well the Wides/Tops. And also the discrete Rears, that are sometimes forgetted in some 7.1.x mixes

I actually kind of like the idea of things morphing to a single inventory mix. If you have the system, you hear the full surround mix in real surround. If you have a smaller system, you hear as much of the surround as possible. Headphone listeners still hear bits of it that are still perceivable in binaural.

My fear is that Atmos will be leveraged as a copy protection format and with an audience of still mostly stereo listeners that will lead to faux Atmos mixes that are mostly stereo and kind of phoned in.

I'm landing on the same fortunate experience so far that most Atmos multichannel mixes I've heard are the real thing! Maybe a few that make me question if they couldn't have just been 5.1 with the same impact. But that's inevitable right now.

I sort of thought the die had been cast and landed on 7.1.4 from some of the top mixers. But... maybe not? So... Great thread!

And I still don't know how to pipe the reference player into the renderer to meter a commercial release. Inquiring minds would like to know!

 

[mandrix]

While I sometimes think the DRP is a vile, half functioning "reference" player due to it's quirks, it does fulfill a purpose.
For many people it's unobtanium though, and Dolby licenses it's software to "approved" shops that don't know a good mix from a horse's patootie; witness some of the absolute crap on the streaming services.

Yes, there are very well done mixes on the streamers as well, no doubt.

Preaching to the choir here, but in this day and time many of us eschew (Atmos) disc playing for playback on our Mac or PC. (yes I still buy discs, rip them to .iso and play them on the PC. I have perfectly functioning disc players as well) But for many this still means buying a device for hardware decoding.

Yes, I have had a functional 7.1.4 system using two AVR's and pc software and of course the DRP. But I was happy to eventually be done with the DRP and move on to hardware decoding. Yep, Dolby, I gave up using your half assed DRP. But I still don't get the lack of a good, functional, software player able to play all the popular Matroska container formats. Not to mention tools to split the audio accurately from BD's for those that prefer more compact formats like M4A with lossless Atmos.

As mentioned, Dolby makes money from hardware licensing. Fine Dolby, open up and make some money from your software as well, sell to the masses. No concern of mine anymore, but please "fix" the DRP and/or give people tools to accurately split audio so the DRP won't spit it out as unplayable.

None of this is a complaint about Atmos; I'm a big fan. I think Atmos and the extended mlp codec is very cool, indeed.

 

[jimfisheye]

They're in the race to rack up hardware based decoder sales before someone liberates the format. That's the point they'll start licensing the decoder to software media players beyond their DRP.

Yes, a "reference" player that can't play wav files! How about that.

I'll never switch back to hardware from computers either! So I did the Dolby software dance. If they would relax that line in the sand just a bit to not push away some of the people that are ultra nerdy and would cheer lead for them with this. I genuinely respect their desire to find a way to get paid back (hardware sales). Shutting out independents like this is just a bit strong. (And also it didn't work.)

 

[jshep5]

I've got an 8.1.6 Atmos setup. FL & FR are Magnepan MG-20's, each tri-amped with a stack of two Dahlquist DQ1 low bass modules (each with a 13" driver). The side surrounds are Magnepan 3.5's and the back surrounds are Magnepan 3.3's, all four bi-amped. The FC and Back Center (the 8th surround speaker) are Magnepan 3.6's also bi-amped. The .1 subwoofer is a Earthquake SuperNova 15 and the six overhead speakers are Mirage Omnisats. The A/V processor is an Trinnov Altitude 16. The basement theater room is about 18'x29'x7.5'.

 

[HomerJAU]

I've got an 8.1.6 Atmos setup.

How do you have your AVR/Decoder setup for 8 on the floor? That’s a non-standard Atmos speaker layout.

 

[jshep5]

The Trinnov Altitude 16 allows for 16 channel outputs that can be assigned to many different positions in 3D space. The back center channel position is one of those options and that's the position of the eighth floor speaker. The setup procedure of the Trinnov measures the location of each speaker with the optional 3D microphone (consisting of four microphones arranged at the vertices of a tetrahedron).

Some might say that I have an 8.2.6 config since I use a Buttkicker to shake the couch. It's feed the .1 signal but is not equalized whereas the signal to the SuperNova 15 is eq'd flat.

 

[DanRuben]

I have a pair of Sonos Era 300s which I guess makes for a 6.0.2 setup. There's the front R+L drivers, then the outward side-firing drivers output the rear R+L channels, the inward side-firing drivers output the mid R+L channels and the upward-firing drivers output the height channels.

I also have a Polk Magnifi Mini AX soundbar with the optional surrounds which is a 5.1 system with virtualized mid R+L channels and height channels.

But mainly I use Sonos for Atmos music.

 

[chinera123]

7.1.2

6 towers, 1 center, 1 sub and 2 bookshelf speakers as height speakers.

That's it for now. Yes...famous last words.

 

[GOS]

I'm honestly surprised, per the voting, how many have a 7.1.4 system! Wow, I figured majority do not have the space to have that setup. I know I don't.

 

[knifeman]

Still not there yet, but here's my right side height speaker locations. Lot of work, but I wanted it done right.

Waiting on the painter.

 

[mandrix]

I'm honestly surprised, per the voting, how many have a 7.1.4 system! Wow, I figured majority do not have the space to have that setup. I know I don't.

How much space is required though, Gene? My setup is in a 8.5 ft x 12.5 ft room that's crowded with one thing and another. My top speakers are two mounted on the ceiling and two mounted on the wall.
I understand most of us fight the space requirements, but I found with good room correction speaker placement isn't as much of a burden as some think. If you saw this room....lol. True, I've moved speakers around a bit but think I have a good balanced sound now.

 

[GOS]

How much space is required though, Gene? My setup is in a 8.5 ft x 12.5 ft room that's crowded with one thing and another. My top speakers are two mounted on the ceiling and two mounted on the wall.
I understand most of us fight the space requirements, but I found with good room correction speaker placement isn't as much of a burden as some think. If you saw this room....lol. True, I've moved speakers around a bit but think I have a good balanced sound now.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I could squeeze 2 more speakers in...but I dunno. I already feel like I'm sitting on top of the 5.1.4 I have. lol

 

[jimfisheye]

I crammed 7.1.4 into a 13' wide x 13' deep (with towed in rear corners) x 9' high room. Puts me in-between near field and mid field. I'd prefer mid field but... For me it started with "What speaker array are some of the accomplished mixers going with?" Answer: 7.1.4 "Alright then, I'm setting up with 7.1.4!"

I made bigger bass traps and added some foam to the ceiling and went kind of clinical.

 

[mrcond]

I'm honestly surprised, per the voting, how many have a 7.1.4 system! Wow, I figured majority do not have the space to have that setup. I know I don't.

Adding 4 ceiling speakers is much easier when your listening room is in the basement with drop ceiling tiles. Easy to run wires and surface-mount the speakers. If it was my living room, no way no how would that be allowed.

 

[Sal1950]

Still not there yet, but here's my right side height speaker locations. Lot of work, but I wanted it done right.View attachment 97892 Waiting on the painter.

Love the oak woodwork, they just don't make em' like they used to.

 

[mandrix]

I'm sort of curious how many with ceiling speakers went with flush mount, and how many went with speakers aimed at the sweet spot (or otherwise)?
All my speakers are directed toward the sweet spot, in this room flush mount would not have been a (good) option anyway.

 

[mandrix]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I could squeeze 2 more speakers in...but I dunno. I already feel like I'm sitting on top of the 5.1.4 I have. lol

That's called the volume adjustment.

 

[mrcond]

I'm sort of curious how many with ceiling speakers went with flush mount, and how many went with speakers aimed at the sweet spot (or otherwise)?
All my speakers are directed toward the sweet spot, in this room flush mount would not have been a (good) option anyway.

I have flush mount but the tweeters are able to be pointed at an angle so I pointed them all towards the sweet spot. I am really not sure it makes too much difference in my setup since i can't quite point them directly at the sweet spot, only about halfway. But it sounds good to me.

 

[jimfisheye]

I'm sort of curious how many with ceiling speakers went with flush mount, and how many went with speakers aimed at the sweet spot (or otherwise)?
All my speakers are directed toward the sweet spot, in this room flush mount would not have been a (good) option anyway.

Sweet spot aimed. All equal distant. Tape measure and level accurate. By the book. Yeah, nothing else would have made sense to me either!

Dolby is specific when they state wide dispersion (at least 45 deg) ONLY if mounting flush in the ceiling!

 

[mandrix]

No way to get equi distant speakers in this room. But it works for me. I had to move the surrounds in closer because there is a piece of furniture that would have been blocking one of the speakers on mic measurements. Is what it is, not much choice for me.