Ceiling speakers?(130 Hz - 20,000 Hz) Do they need a ceiling subwoofer?

M

Mihai

Enthusiast
I'm planning to add ceiling speakers (4) for DTS:X, Atmos, auro etc. The issue is that the ones available from my brand have a frequency range of 130 - 20,000 Hz. I have a separate/floor subwoofer but I'm concerned that if I crossover 130Hz some effects could be localised.
Should I get two subwoofers and place them in the ceiling as well(i.e. one between the top front speakers and another one between the rear top speakers)? If so should I crossover from 80Hz to 130Hz to the ceiling subwoofers and the rest to the main subwoofer(which is more powerful) ?
 
L

Latent

Full Audioholic
Just a note that Ceiling speakers are not recommend for Auro3D use because their spec is different than DTS:X and Atmos. You may not be interesting in paying extra to do the Auro3D optional upgrade though when there is not a lot of content for it yet.

Auro3D only works best with front height and surround height speakers but you can swap the surround height for rear height if needed.

Some info here:

http://www.audioholics.com/editorials/dts-x-listening-evaluation

The solution if you want all three audio options is to not use 5.1/7.1 ear level speakers and 4 up high speakers in the front and rear height positions. These speakers could possible be mounted in ceiling but they are really designed for standard speakers (think mini bookshelf maybe) that are positioned high on the wall. These speakers may solve your bass frequency problem.

With your speakers limited to 130hz you are going to have some bass response that is meant to be sent to these channels and anything from 80hz-130hz is going to be coming from your Sub and may be localize-able as coming from the sub (anything below 80hz will also come from sub but you won't be able to hear its direction). However most peoples ability to locate such frequencies is very limited. If listening to test tracks with a lot of attention you may be able to spot the location of this bass. But in practice while listening to a atmos or dts:x source from a movie for example you will not be able to notice this because there will probably be bass response from many directions as the helicopter or whatever crashes into the bridge overhead. Many of the overhead sounds will not have any bass in this range that is important anyway. Another option to avoid localisation of the bass is to install more than one sub in opposite corners of your room (at floor level and not in your ceiling). Multiple subs is meant to be better anyway for many reasons and by having this 80-130hz sound coming at you from two directions is going to make noticing its direction very hard.

You may already have some normal speakers setup and a sub in which case I would recommend testing it in your room by setting the main front speakers to small and around 130hz crossover and listening to some sources. Try and find something with low frequency response and ideally some left right movement. You can cheat the movement by removing the Left or right analog inputs from your source so you only get one speaker output and see if you can hear any low frequency that seems to come from the SUB's direction. I would also recommend you listen with the sub switched off (but still enabled in the AVR!) so you will be able to hear the loss of low bass which will give you an idea of the frequency range you are trying to listen for.
 
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