Dolby Atmos Speakers

[MikeGrahamT21]

I've got to the point whilst insulating the loft now where if I want to use in-ceiling speakers for Dolby Atmos, now is the time to install them, but are they the best solution?

 

So i've looked at the Dolby Atmos guide for speaker placement, and know I have choice of either in-ceiling or the floor atmos certified speakers. Does anyone have either of these, or any experience of which may be best?

 

The floor ones are about twice the price of the in-ceiling Yamaha speakers I've chosen if I go down that route. If I were to use in-ceiling, i'd make an OSB box to house them in for airtightness purposes, which is taped on all joints and then taped to the plasterboard.

 

or

[Cpd]

Due to potential dust buildup and furniture  affecting the performance of the speakers I would personally go for ceiling mounted, but that is just my own personal choice as I am also doing ceiling mounted. Will be interesting to see if we have any sound experts on the forum !   

[MikeGrahamT21]

I also think ceiling mounted would perform better, as the idea of Atmos is to give down firing sound, so makes sense having the speaker located above you, my only concern is if I get the positioning wrong, obviously with floor ones you could just move them. Looking at the Dolby docs theres a lot of emphasis on precise measurements and angles. I'm no expert though, and it may not matter that much if its not 100% precise.

[recoveringbuilder]

We have the lithe audio ceiling speakers and I love them , only wish I’d got some put in the kitchen as well 

[Cpd]

I would rig them in a temporary box that you can move around the ceiling if possible and get a feel for how they perform, try to get everything like furniture etc in its right place and also if you have a preferred music chair this should be the place you constantly sit in to check how they sound from different locations on the ceiling. When you have  found the optimal placement for your needs, How they sound is the MOST important not how they look ! Then you can see if it’s going to be possible to mount them at that location, compromise can be made from the perfect location to where they can Actually be fitted. 

[MikeGrahamT21]

One problem, i'm not at the point of being able to use them yet, as my current AVR isn't atmos capable, this is just a bit of future proofing as I know that it will form part of the next iteration of my home cinema. I'll just have to stick to the measurements dolby provide, i'm sure they'll be accurate.

[pudding]

Ceiling all day long. The floor mounted ones are a backup designed to fire up to the ceiling and reflect back down to you if you cant use ceiling mounted speakers to get the genuine height effects. Stick a pair near the front and pair near the back. As long as you can get them in roughly the right locations it's fine, don't worry about the angles too specifically. In future when you get a new AVR, you'll probably get one with a room calibration tool, or at least try to, and that will sort out any room and placement issues (within reason!)

[MikeGrahamT21]

So you'd go for a 5.1.4 setup, rather than my proposed 5.1.2? Yeah the current AVR has self adjustment, but doesn't support Atmos.

[MikeGrahamT21]

I can't justify buying 4 ceiling speakers, I've gone for 2, Yamaha IC600's. Whilst I await an Atmos receiver (pending on when the TV gives up, so I can get a relevant one in terms of 4k/8k whatever is around at the time), I plan to connect these extra two up to an existing output on my Denon. Both sets of speakers are 8ohm, and receiver can handle up to 16ohms, so should be able to connect either parallel or series, depending on what is easiest. Power is my only concern, each channel is 75W, minimum power for the Yamaha's is 40W, so may be best (and more practical from an install perspective) going for parallel and sticking to 8ohms.

Edited October 16, 2019 by MikeGrahamT21

[MikeGrahamT21]

So the IC600's were a bit bigger than anticipated!! Think I shall be returning them for some IC400's tomorrow.

[AliG]

I have a 5.1.2 system with ceiling mounted Atoms speakers. It works well. Atmos definitely sounds better than Dolby Surround but unless you use 4K blu rays there is surprisingly little content available. Sky only has Atmos on a small percentage of 4K movies plus sports. 

[MikeGrahamT21]

Yeah I think I’ve one Blu-ray which has got it, a Harry Potter if I remember right, there is a lot of simulation stuff as well though like DTS Virtual X which is meant to be really good. I think for £99 it’s a sound investment. Glad to hear it works well in a real life situation too so thanks for that

[Adsibob]

Just thought I'd refresh this thread in case anybody had any further thoughts about Dolby Atmos, particularly whether it is worthwhile when not installing ceiling speakers.

I have a fairly good sized area of my "study" where I will have a sofa that will be my cinema area. I'm considering one of these set-ups, as I've left it a little bit late to put wires in for my rear speakers, although this could still be done by buying rebated skirting board:

 

1. LG SN11RG (https://www.richersounds.com/lg-sn11rg-black.html)
2. Philips B97/10 (https://www.richersounds.com/philips-b97-10-black.html)

I was put off the Dolby Atmos not having much content available, as most of my collection is on BluRay from about 10 years ago, and I rarely buy any hard copy stuff these days, instread streaming most stuff.

[IanR]

You've linked to soundbars that are simulating Atmos by bouncing effects off ceiling and walls.

 

I've never listened to one of these but understand them to be very sensitive to room geometry and finishes.

 

I feel you'd need to listen to these in your own room before making a decision.

[MikeGrahamT21]

I’ve got my final setup now with a Marantz nr 1710 receiver and the IC400 ceiling speakers, although there isn’t much content which is native, it does also upscale non atmos/dts:x content and this is very good, not sure I could be without now.

 

friend has a Sonos arc plus rear speakers, this bounces off of the ceiling and also sounds very good, but despite its cost can’t replace hardwired ceiling speakers. 
 

upward firing requires a flat ceiling (no artex) to bounce properly

[Thorfun]

I have an Apple TV (4k version) and there is loads of content on it with Atmos. the vast majority of the content on Disney+ is Atmos enabled and I'm finding more and more on Netflix and Prime is too.

 

in our existing house I have a sound bar that has upward firing Atmos speakers and it works ok. previously had a 5.1.2 setup with a screen and projector and that worked a lot better and in the new house in our TV room/snug it will definitely have ceiling speakers for a 5.1.2 setup at the minimum.

 

The cinema will be a full on 9.2.4 setup if I can ever find the budget for it! ?

[Adsibob]

I’m only slightly kicking myself now for not planning ahead better, as the ceiling above the area of my “study” where I was thinking of having a cinema area is not flat, but slanted at 45 degrees. 
it has already been plastered anyway so not an option to reopen the ceiling now. 
An option that is still available to me is to fit the “ceiling” speakers high up on a stud wall that is still to be built in that room, near where the stud wall meets the ceiling, creating a 135 degree angle. But I’m assuming that is too far from optimal to make atmos worthwhile.

Alternatively I already have an old 5.1 set up, that has some fairly nice floor mounted or wall mounted speakers. If I use the speakers from that, could I add two more to give me some sort of atmos capability, or an I better off just going for an old style 7.1  and forget atmos altogether?

 

[IanR]

Up firers are not going to be able to re-produce the over-head effects with a sloping ceiling, and I'm pretty sure they won't work as a wall speaker at the edge of the room, no matter how high you can get them.

 

If you've not found this page before, it's a good reference to walk you through the options:

 

https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides

[Adsibob]

These speakers suggest that placement at the top of my wall, just before it touches the ceiling, is possible: https://www.svsound.com/products/prime-elevation?cjevent=36bca1da6d7811ec804b1a950a18050d&utm_channel=affiliate&utm_source=CommissionJunction&utm_term=Skimlinks&utm_content=SVS+Subwoofers&utm_campaign=CJaff&afsrc=1&cjdata=MXxZfDB8WXww

 

The only alternative is that I move my cinema area from my "study" to the kids playroom which will also double up as their TV room. This is a much more regularly shaped room with a flat ceiling as opposed to a vaulted one. The problem is that my 5 year old daughter's bedroom is directly above that, so any very loud cinema system in the room below will wake her. Although we are soundproofing the ceiling by using resilient bars, mineral wool between the voids and two layers of soundboard, if I were to fit ceiling speakers, surely that would compromise the soundproofing of the ceiling?

 

Is it better to leave the ceiling unbroken and add floor based speakers that bounce the sound off the ceiling? Anyone used those to good effect?

Edited January 4, 2022 by Adsibob