Hanging or high-wall mount solution for Dolby Atmos?

[rsharp]

I currently have a 7.1 system:

rectangular room (14 ft wide; 21 ft deep; 9 ft flat ceiling). Not fully enclosed, but a floor-to-ceiling wall runs along 40% of the back.
60-inch Pioneer Kuro along the front short wall (14 ft)
Bose 601 mains, Bose 301 side surrounds. Some old Pioneer speakers I once use for dual center channel (24 years ago!) are my rear surrounds (on bookshelf on that 40% wall)
Center channel: Bowers & Wilkins XTC
Sub (single): Bower & Wilkins PV1D
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-23THX
Blu-ray: Pioneer BDP-85FD

What I know about Atmos...

First, love the technology from a content-creation standpoint. Scalability makes a ton of sense.

Most importantly, in-ceiling is far superior to Atmos-enabled speakers. Recently experienced a demo. The Atmos-enabled did add some height, but just a bit. Seemed like the sound was just now "hovering" a bit over my head as if there was some very low ceiling (say 30 inches above my head). A pan of sound traveling in an arc from right-rear-surround, overhead and ending up in left-front was awesome with in-ceiling. But that effect completely failed with Atmos-enabled.

Also know that material is very scarce so far.

My goals...

Upgrade my system to carry me the next 7 to 10 years. Note that I do not need to get everything at once. I'm thus looking a equipment that mainly gives me more options later down the road.

I'll be updating my receiver to either a Pioneer SC-91 or SC-95. I'm tempted to do the latter as that provides a free upgrade path to DTS:X. Also, being 9-channel instead of just 7, that gives me more options for particular configurations.

The config I'm mostly looking at is 7.1.2. Though, 5.1.4 is also tempting.


Question...

There is _no_ way I can put speakers in my ceiling. Way too costly and other issues as well. I'm also _not_ doing anything Atmos-enabled. So, is there any setup for Dolby Atmos that uses either speakers mounted to the ceiling (i.e. hanging speakers)? Or even more preferable, speakers I could mount say at the very top of my 9-foot walls (to left and right of listening area) and angle towards the listening area?

According to the Atmos spec, the former (hanging speakers) should work as I'd meet the minimum height requirements (they should be twice the height of your ear at listening level). The latter (top of the wall mounted), while probably not within spec, seems like it would be so much better that what I heard with Atmos-enabled.

Put another way, wondering if high wall mounts could get me say 80 to 90% of the way there to true in-ceiling Dolby Atmos. From my experience with the Atmos demo, I'd say the Atmos enabled tech just gave me say 25% to at most 30% of the desired effect.

Looking forward to hearing if this is all possible. If not, no big deal; I'd stick with my 7.1 for years to come.

 

[rsharp]

Answering my own question after some research...

Speakers that you could realistically put at the top of walls would ultimately limit one's options. I was finding I would need to compromise on quality. Furthermore, in my particular case, running wires in the wall ended up a no-go anyhow. I have video of our home being built and I did a complete walkthrough pre-drywall. I found that due to horizontal studs in some locations and lots of duct work, it would not be possible to keep things symmetrical between the left and right sides of the room.

So in order to move to Dolby Atmos, the budget then skyrockets and would be much more intrusive which cannot happen.

Thus, I'm doing a side-grade on the receiver and keeping my 7.1 setup. Later (hopefully in a couple years), I'll replace my mains (starting to investigate Bower & Wilkins a bit; their 600 and CM series mostly). That should thus boost my overall quality and will be money much better spent.

 

[Valentino Molinar]

"According to the Atmos spec, the former (hanging speakers) should work as I'd meet the minimum height requirements (they should be twice the height of your ear at listening level). The latter (top of the wall mounted), while probably not within spec, seems like it would be so much better that what I heard with Atmos-enabled."


What are Atmos Spec, and where can I get them?

 

[Latent]

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/StaticFiles/PUSA/Files/Dolby Atmos/Dolby-Atmos-Home-Theater-Installation-Guidelines.pdf

 

[TheWarrior]

You need bass, way more than you need height channels!

Even if that sub can even reach below 30 hz, it could not possibly have enough output for that size room.

 

[rsharp]

You need bass, way more than you need height channels!

Even if that sub can even reach below 30 hz, it could not possibly have enough output for that size room.

The B&W PV1d puts out enough bass for our room.

 

[Dreko]

SVS company offer a alternative for speaker placement for Atmos, Basically you mount your speaker high in the wall with little angle firing down. I thing the have a speaker series that has that angle in the cabinet so you will not need to mount a bracket to accomplish that. Now, If it works ok with Atmos algorithm that is another story. But according with some review DTS X is more flexible about speaker placement. To be honest you can get a nice surround sound with good speaker a nice powerful receiver or apms and locate your speaker a little higher than your listening position or even use dipole speakers. I'm about to experiment with my surround rear speaker, and place it a little higher that the regular surround to see if I can hear any different. Why the rear surround? I remember when dolby digital EX came out the purpose of that extra channel 6.1 is to simulate that something is passing over you when a space ship fly over or a plane. So probably with movie that are 7.1 you can get a little of that effect with the rear surround. here is the link for SVS
http://www.svsound.com/blogs/svs/75358787-intro-to-dolby-atmos