Setting Up Dolby Atmos Immersive Sound Speakers

[Todd Anderson]

Is there any way you can get them in the ceiling there?

 

[phillihp23]

That’s what I am thinking...I will have too see what space I have up there... if I can...I think I will do in-ceiling for rear heights and the middle heights. So the rear heights need to be directly above the rear channel speakers? Or will the AVR adjust for distance and dbs.

 

[phillihp23]

I’m am gonna see if there is room in the ceiling... if so I probably will do in ceiling for the back heights also. Do they have to be directly above the rear speakers or will audyssey adjust for distance and dbl? If I have to install them slightly forward if the rear speakers. Actually it is not recommended to install them closer than 2 feet from a wall, due to reflections. What about if I do in-wall?

 

[Todd Anderson]

Here's an Atmos setup speaker guide... I'd use it as a rule of thumb, not absolute gospel.

Dolby Atmos Speaker Setup

Dolby Atmos Speaker Placement Tips: Set up your speakers for the ultimate Dolby Atmos experience with our expert tips. Elevate your audio immersion now.

www.dolby.com

 

[Todd Anderson]

Huh. Phillip, I thought I had left a more extensive message above, but now I can find it.

I wanted to add... if I were you (especially with your ceiling), I'd buy speakers that mount to the ceiling, rather in the ceiling. Polk's option is its Atrium Series (https://www.polkaudio.com/collections/home-audio/atrium-outdoor-series). This is going to introduce a ton of flexibility to your system and what happens once you've deployed it. I'd probably mount 10"10" boards to the ceiling where the speakers are going to go and then mount the speakers direct to that. That way you can easily adjust the mounts. Then, you'll also have the aiblity to adjust directionality (or lack there of) once the speaker is in place.

My first Atmos deployment was incelings... for me (in my room) the SVS Elevations have offered a much better presentation. Of, that could be room specific. And I believe that inceilings would have performed better if my room had taller ceilings.

 

[phillihp23]

Todd do you have a photo of the placement of your rear heights in relation to your rear speakers...

 

[Todd Anderson]

Not home at the moment... but They are directly over top of rear speakers. My front mains, atmos channels, and rear speakers are all in-line from front to back.

My rears are angled inward to the center seat. Largely driven by my room being that medium smaller size ;-)

Doesn't have to be that way for your room. I would keep the Atmos channels in line from front to back, tho! Keep them aligned.

 

[phillihp23]

So I settled on a pair of Polk RTIA 1 for the rear height...on sale $200 and a pair of Polk 70 RT for in-ceilings $200.
I'm thinking with my ceiling height and the angled ceiling that is not too steep..it may work out well. Will let you know in a few weeks. As for the rear heights I will have to rig up some kind of mount like i did with the main rears and front heights....back to creativity. Now I wait for all the stuff too arrive and begin my install the second week of sept.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Can't wait to read your impressions!!!!!

 

[Sonnie]

Here's a good pick of how I did my height speakers.... and this is a good pic of the projector shelf I built as well.

Mine was easy because I have easy access above the ceiling and it's 3/4" plywood underneath the sheetrock, so screwing anything to the ceiling is a solid hold.

I built the boxes and opened up the backside with a large hole into the attic space instead of ceiling them up, as these are designed to be infinite baffle.

This first pic is the two rear and the pj. Ignore the two square pieces against the back wall... that is where I use to have a tall rear wall sub that used the riser as an enclosure.

This is a pic of the left front and rear. The fronts are lined up just forward of the front row and the rear are even with the back row.

Close up of the mount... and this is with the JVC 620 that I had at the time.

 

[NBPK402]

I just watched an interesting video on YouTube from Audioholics. What was revealed was that Dolby Atmos in the theaters is different than in home use, and it wasn't just how many channels. It was also brought up that they have tested atmos with the main channels off, and found that the home versions have hardly any info at all on the Atmos channels. The person who was talking also said the if you have height channels...you should mount them on the walls, not the ceiling. In addition it was recommended to mount 2 front heights, and 2 rear heights that were angled toward the mlp. It was mentioned that if you use Auro3d for upconverting the height channels had more info than on Atmos. I will be installing my channels as height channels too. I am really curious to see if anyone else that has Auro3d, has tried upconverting Dolby atmos, and had it sound better with wall mounted height channels.

 

[Sonnie]

Mine are the angled variety and are angled towards the main listening area, but they also supposedly have wide dispersion. I rarely notice any information from these speakers, but I do get immersed into the sound of the movie and it definitely sounds better with Atmos than it did prior to having it, so something is going on.

 

[phillihp23]

Interesting Sonnie, I notice your rear atmos speakers are just forward of your rear speakers. With everyone talking about angling the height channels toward MLP I am hoping the in-ceiling speakers in my slightly angled ceiling will be the perfect compliment.

 

[Sonnie]

Yeah... I'd say around 4 feet in front of the surrounds. It all sounds good to me... everything blends well and the speakers all disappear. It all does a really good job of immersing me into the movie. I've tried the side surrounds with the rears... just doesn't work for me as well as just having the rear corner surrounds, but that may be due to my room not being any deeper than it is. If it were another 3-4ft deep, it might be a different setup.

 

[phillihp23]

An of topic question, have any of you ever painted the speaker grills? My new in-ceiling have white grilles....need them black. Do you just spray paint them? Any specific kind of paint? Won't the paint clog the fine holes in the grille and effect sound projection?

 

[NBPK402]

I think parts Express sells black speaker grill cloth... I would think it would be better than painting cloth.

 

[Sonnie]

Are they cloth or metal? Mine are metal and I painted them black with fast drying Krylon... no issues at all.

 

[NBPK402]

Sonny, how important is it that all your height channels are the same height? My fronts will be about 13' high, but my rears have a 10' ceiling limit.

 

[Sonnie]

Distance/delay and maintaining levels will take care of the differences... not a major concern. Audyssey will make adjustsments so that every speaker output arrives at the main listening position at the same time and same volume level.

 

[NBPK402]

Are you still using Dirac... I hope to be going back to Dirac next year.

 

[phillihp23]

Are they cloth or metal? Mine are metal and I painted them black with fast drying Krylon... no issues at all.

Plastic or metal. They are Polk.

 

[NBPK402]

Those should not be hard to paint...you just need to find out if they are plastic or metal as the paint may be different.

 

[Sonnie]

Krylon will adhere to plastic or metal... shouldn't be an issue at all.

Make sure you do it in very thin coats until you get full coverage. It's dries in 5 minutes. Hold the can a good 12-16 inches from the grill... lightly coat it and come back in 10 minutes and repeat. In 20 minutes you can mount them. I would not use a flat paint... use a semi gloss or gloss if possible, as it will be a harder finish and not scratch as easily.

 

[Sonnie]

Are you still using Dirac... I hope to be going back to Dirac next year.

Yes... it's built into my NAD M17.

 

[phillihp23]

I should have everything by end of day Tuesday. So the big install will be Wednesday. Only gonna cram myself into that crawl space once . If the inceiling doesn’t work out well I’ll build box’s like you sonnie, just angled so they end up horizontal to the floor when mounted. What type of wood did you use?