Favorite speaker setup for Atmos music (i.e. Abbey Road)

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This is where mine are going (circled red; on ceiling and only as wide as fronts)View attachment 59619, as per Dolby.
That is a good plan and is exactly my starting point. In the end I am a little off of the perfect Dolby example as you show. By the time the sound actually came through the speakers moving fronts, theater seats (just a two seater in my room) I would say my front L/R is about 6" off to outside of heights, my dual theater seat is closer to my rear heights than fronts by 1'.

The biggest thing is I seriously wanted to do my two rears as in this diagram you show but the back height of the theater seat absorbed too much sound and I didn't like it. My rears are now more in line with my ears, quite challenging as the rear left is closer to my head. but with a little moving and setting the delays in the AVR I am 90% there. Wall treatments when they arrive will change things again.
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Hmmm - so they are saying the the height "front's are actually on the side walls? Is this how all our Atmos owners are doing it?
They certainly are promoting their speakers mounted on the sides but they do refer to the Dolby Speaker guides as well. I auditioned my height speakers mounted to the sides in the fronts and rears and did not like the effect at all. I could easily tell the sounds were coming from the sides, not in front and behind me.
I had a similar problem with the front height speakers mounted high on the front wall firing down towards me. I could easily hear them being front speakers. Even mounted up high at the ceiling, they were only 3.5 feet higher than the top of my front Klipsch RF7ii. I sit 17’ away from my front speakers so there were only a few degrees of separation between them.
My rear height speakers are mounted high up on the wall behind me and they do sound ok.
 
So, here we are a year later and the room isn't done yet (no work from April 1 til now). But now that we are going to try and resurrect all that remodeling activity, I am close to ordering the two pair of black SVS Prime Elevations for my ceiling mounted front and rear height speakers (I may have my Atmos speaker position nomenclature wrong :) ).

Before I do I want to put to bed one final category of speaker for any possibilities, and that's the fairly long list of reputable speaker companies (inc KEF, Klipsch) that make "toppers" for their more-floor-oriented speakers; namely, Atmos bounce speaker add--ons that portend to bounce realistic sound off the ceiling. Don't get me wrong, I am not looking to do that...I am looking to find if anyone has used these toppers as down-firing ceiling speakers? Their lower profile and angled fronts make them worth one last look, but if they are not even able to be positioned or attached to a ceiling, then nevermind.

I use the SVS Prive Elevation speakers for my front and rear heights. I have been really happy with them and the mounting brackets are nice with a near flush mount to both the wall and ceiling.
 

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Te Quested cx-12 play 130 db and go down to 29hz...
 

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Check out Rob Hahns theater on avsforum. Professionally designed over million dollar theater room. He uses the JBL SCS-8’s as his Atmos (M2 LCR) and there is a lot of good talk about them in the thread. Obviously the quested would probably be better but they also are 8 times the cost,
 
read my article, it also criticizes the tops speaker at Rob Hahns, Alcons audio blows it out of the water, my calibrator has 9 m2 for surrounds, read what he said, JBL is highly overrated period.
 
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And so that you don't think I am punching up to Keith....
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https://www.avsforum.com/threads/so...read-2020-solfar.3125600/page-6#post-60220397
2 Million


This room buries Rob Hahns. Sorry.

ps. I apologize for the apparent tirade, but when I hear Rob Hahn's name thrown about as gospel, it sounds to me like every time "Randolph Scott"'s name was spoken in Blazing Saddles.
Unwarrantedly over-dietysized. I have the files to prove. Carry on.
 
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What dont you like about using the JBL SCS's as Atmos heights?

TIME SMEAR endemic to all horns. A term Keith Yates sticks his head underground about in his so white condescending way, but read what TOM BACK said. Keith's designs may be brilliant but they leave no budget for good equipment case in point RH's.
 
This thread of mine has gotten totally out of control, with "my di** is bigger than your di**", name dropping industry guys and showing $2M rooms. WTF!!! The essence of what I wanted to do with Atmos heights is now totally lost. Let's take a deep breath and get back to my thread; these million dollar HT budgets need to be proudly displayed in another more relevant thread, please. Thx :)

So.... ALL JBLs have time smearing? OK, I will keep that in mind if and when I can demo them. I've heard dozens of JBL large and modified presentations, and usually the overall feeling is a good one. Not my choice for main transducers, but the size, budget and aiming capabilities of these SCS-8s looked promising as height candidates.
 
take a look at pmc ci series, great value and what universal, abbey road, kraftwerk, booka use for atmos mixing, very wide controlled dispersion and goes down to 40. peace out.
FWIW time smear becomes aggravatingly fatiguing after about 2 weeks of listening. Try borrowing a pair for an extended trial.
 
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I am almost finished with my room, just waiting for the wall treatments to arrive from GIK Acoustics. After they arrive I will do my final tuning but sure is sweet so far. My room is 12' X 14'.
I have 5 speakers on the floor, 4 ceiling speakers for Atmos and 3 subwoofers.

The 4 Atmos speakers (B&W CCM7.5 S2) are tilt able to the listening position. They are in line with my two front speakers on floor. Two front heights are between front speakers and myself, two rear heights are between the back of my head and wall.
Note: My experience so far with Atmos heights is sometimes spectacular, most of time not. Movies seem to embrace the Atmos more than music only discs, music only discs are little weak except for some exceptions, Booka Shade, etc.
The envelope of sound is very cool even when not hearing discrete artifacts.
The foundation floor speakers are still the engine of all.

My 3 subs, all REL S5 (rear sub), S510 (for front L/R) and S812 (for center) are really great. I thought that REL was crazy suggesting that set up to me based on a 12' X 14' room, but really glad I listened. They are tuned perfectly, they do not wall shake, there is just this nice layer of low frequency that ties the bottom in and pressures the room just right, they are not turned up to shake but on movies sometimes they do a little.

The front and rear subs used for the floor speakers are LFE connected from two separate sub outs of my AVR and High Frequency speakon cable connected to amp speaker posts. I had some minor feed back and by disconnecting the black speakon wire the hum went away.

The 3rd sub for center channel is NOT connected to LFE but High Frequency cable only, red and yellow to amp end and black to phono ground of AVR (another help in eliminating hum).
As I said in the beginning I am still tweaking it out with minor placement of speakers adjusting my brain to certain imaging and reflection. Did I say my sitting spot is off center, my right armrest of my chair is center, so the center of my head is off about 8-10 inches.
I have been successful using mono recordings to dial in the center image between left and right mains, so now my stereo image sounds better.
Since this picture was taken the two fronts are moved towards center about 2" from audio rack, the two subs are now angled diagonally, IsoAcoustic Gaia II feet have been added to the two floor standers, and the new carpet finally lays flat.
I have started to turn off my tweaking brain and start to just enjoy what I have, believe it or not this is challenging to get out of that head space to want to improve, not even sure I know what to improve anymore.
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Wow! That is a really impressive system. I can only imagine how good it must sound. Nice work. :LB
 
Very nice setup you had there! It's nice to have a dedicated room like that.
I went from a Klipsch 7.2 setup to a 7.2.4 Atmos configuration. I have (4) Klipsch RF7ii that i use for the L, R, RS, LS, speakers, a RC64ii for the center, and (2) RS-62ii for L & R RS speakers. I thought that I'd go with similar Klipsch Atmos speakers (4) RP-500SA so that they may be a closer match to my main speakers. My primary reason for upgrading to Atmos was for music with the nice addition of movies so I'd hoped they would sound somewhat similar. I also had hoped that the upward firing speakers may actually work well enough that I wouldn't have to mount them on the ceiling. When I tried them, I could not get an acceptable height sensation bouncing the sound off of my vaulted ceiling. I tested various wall placements as front heights and along the sides but they never gave me the in front of me firing down from the ceiling sound I wanted. I ended up mounting them on a ceiling cross beam that runs across the middle of my living room. Now they are firing down from the ceiling in front of me. I did mount my rear height speakers at the top of the wall behind me which gives me the behind and above direction I wanted. This arrangement matches the Dolby suggested setup pretty closely.

I am disappointed by the sound quality of the height speakers compared to the rest of my system. I have a Marantz SR8012 AVR that drives these speakers. It uses Audyssey MultEQ 32 for room equalization and setup. During the measurement process, the amplifier plays a series of test sounds through each speaker, one at a time, starting with the Front Left speaker and ending with the Left Rear Height speaker. I've never really noticed before that all of the listener level speakers sound very similar when playing the test sounds. Klipsch did a really good job of matching the center and rear surrounds to the main speakers. However, when the Audyssey test signals reached the height speakers, there was a noticeable difference in their sound quality vs the listener level speakers. I find this disappointing. I had hoped they would sound similar to the rear surround RS-62ii speakers but they don't. I haven't actually noticed a timbre difference while playing any music or movie yet but I know that I heard it during setup. I can imagine a movie like Gravity that has a demo quality ATMOS sound track that you might be able to hear a difference from the ceiling speakers as the various sound effects are spun around the room and ceiling. I've just ordered a copy so I will find out soon! I think it will take some audio source that moves discretely from speaker to speaker for this to become noticeable. I've also just ordered some test disks so they may reveal some differences with the height speakers...

So I believe, if you can afford, and are able to use similar speakers for your height speakers as your surround speakers, you should. I've been very satisfied with my system but there is a little nagging "what if" that I now have concerning the height speakers sound quality. Everything I've heard through them so far has sounded wonderful, but.....what if?

Just my opinion!
David
Well written David. It’s my experience when I had two rooms in my house, one using Dirac on NAD and the other Denon, that Dirac made a night sbd day difference. I did switch the processors around to establish this belief.

I agree with David, Tiber matched is critical for ATMOS music do as a sound pans around the location changed but the sound is the same.

And from personal experience of myself and my friend, heights is all about location, location, location. My friend decided to use Polk R900’s wall mount speakers mounted to the ceiling because when mounted on the wall and not in the correct Atmos position, they didn’t add much.
 
I am staring this thread out of respect for the Abbey Road Atmos feedback thread; i.e I have no feedback cuz I don't have my room built yet, so I am staying off that thread. However, that thread has caused me to think very seriously about making my new audio room Atmos-capable (yes it will have video projector but audio is king). I realize there are a myriad of setups, have read the Dolby Atmos setup guides, etc..but now looking for real world feedback on setting up for Atmos music (i.e more than just foley effects in movies).

I will have a dedicated 5.1 setup, with equidistant and timbre-equivalent (if not exact same) full range speakers in a classic ITU setup (surrounds at around 90-105 degrees). My initial thought on Atmos was to simply put some nice Andrew Jones-designed ELAC ceiling speakers in at the recommended 5.1.4 ceiling positions. But as I look further maybe I would be open to putting non-ceiling height speakers up (less WAF but oh well), and wondered what Atmos music enthusiasts (esp the Abbey Road feedback folks) thought. Clearly, some larger non-ceiling speakers will have more balls and may even more closely match timbre to my mains, but not sure I am overthinking this. :) Thx
Ted
Hi Ted,
Please take this advice seriously as I believe it will make a world of difference for your experience.
- don’t use 5.1
- use 7 channels on the floor as this is how Atmos music is intended and there are many Atmos sound tracks that move sounds between the rears and the sides.

If you have the space and budget use a minimum of 4 subs to remove standing waves. Have you watched Audioholics YouTube videos of Anthony G. on this topic. There is a wealth on info and wisdom there that is essential viewing on room design, treatment and subwoofer placement.

I’m a fan of 6 channel height vs 4, but I seem to be on my own on this one.

When selecting your speakers, if you have the luxury, desire, and budget, buy speeders with larger bass drivers for sides and rears. I use Polk L600’s on my tears, these are IMAX enhanced speakers designed for full range bass (to a degree) and have Polks power port which deflects the bass output. But perhaps one of their best qualities is these can be shoved up against the wall, or pulled them out, and the sound is remarkably similar. However I’m sure you already know what you want, Focal Grand Utopia’s all round. 😂

You may not be a gamer, but consider this, in a first person shooter game you want the sound to come from EXACTLY where it’s supposed to be so when you turn to look at that location the object appears where the sound came from. That in my opinion is a perfect Atmos system. And that how my audio sounds. And to get that the ceiling speakers had to be placed in the right location. I want that experience for you and everyone here. And Atmos music sounds so good when producers play back and forth with the side and rear speakers.

Im a 5.1 SACD listener and my system in direct mode sends the rear speaker sounds of the 5.1 to both rear and sides. Maybe you are too and that’s why you’re looking at 5.1? Some companies send 5.1 to the sides others send it yo the rears. Mine/ NAD sends it to both. But NAD suck because they don’t process DSD, only PCM. Most have an up mixer. And some 5.1 SACDs upmix really well to the heights like Hotel California.

Put a minimum of 4 heights in the right place, timber match.

What equipment are you buying or have purchased?

Warren
 
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WozzaDog, that post was from three and a half years ago! My room has been documented here on a few threads; here's a link to the Nov 2022 setup, which is being updated to delete the 45 and 135 SVS Prime Elevation ceilings and instead include timbre-matched (to the bed) two pair of Aerial 5Ts (at the 30 and 140 positions), with an Auro-3D bias but great for Atmos. If I find that there is a hole in the front-to-back ceiling flyovers then I will put one pair of my Prime Elevations at top middle l and r (or define them as side heights, we'll see). That will require me to upgrade my Lyngdorf from an MP-40 to an MP-60 but I can do it. :)

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/show-us-your-gear.6450/page-50#post-661407
 
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