want to get most out of Atmos

[William Lemmerhirt]

Ok, I think I see what your up to. I have seen guys install height speakers where the wall meets the ceiling at the sides of the LP 45° fore and aft of the LP such as the guidelines suggest.
In a 5.1.2 system, the atmos speakers should go just in front of the LP. Like this...

In a x.x.4 the ideal is 45° fore and aft.

In your case, if you can move the jamo’s slightly in front of you, on the side like they are, but maybe as far ahead as your feet would be if you stretched out your legs, would be worth a try. In reality I think this would place them closer to the “Top front” position anyway. Set them as “top front” not front height and see what ya get.

Once you move them, set up the mic and run audyssey bugling through the setup wizard. It should ask about which speakers you have and somewhere along the way, should promt you to select amp assignment for you configuration. There is a manual way to do it. I will look...

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Ok.(if this is like my Marantz) Press the setup button, Rehnquist speakers, manual setup and then amp assign. Follow the instructions there and you should be good. Part of your poor results have been not assigning the speakers correctly.
So, first move the speakers and then, either rerun audyssey and make sure it knows you have top front speakers, and it should assign the amps properly. Or manually set it up as above. I would go the audyssey way, as this should take out some guesswork.

 

[2channel lover]

Ok, I think I see what your up to. I have seen guys install height speakers where the wall meets the ceiling at the sides of the LP 45° fore and aft of the LP such as the guidelines suggest.
In a 5.1.2 system, the atmos speakers should go just in front of the LP. Like this...

In a x.x.4 the ideal is 45° fore and aft.

In your case, if you can move the jamo’s slightly in front of you, on the side like they are, but maybe as far ahead as your feet would be if you stretched out your legs, would be worth a try. In reality I think this would place them closer to the “Top front” position anyway. Set them as “top front” not front height and see what ya get.

Once you move them, set up the mic and run audyssey bugling through the setup wizard. It should ask about which speakers you have and somewhere along the way, should promt you to select amp assignment for you configuration. There is a manual way to do it. I will look...

The 5.1.4 diagram is how my system is setup...only with 2 subs. I started with 2 overhead atmos, (in front of the viewer)...shortly after I added 2 more overhead atmos, slightly behind.

In my case, playing back the same movie with 2 and then 4 atmos speakers, 4 was considerably better.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

The 5.1.4 diagram is how my system is setup...only with 2 subs. I started with 2 overhead atmos, (in front of the viewer)...shortly after I added 2 more overhead atmos, slightly behind.

In my case, playing back the same movie with 2 and then 4 atmos speakers, 4 was considerably better.

I totally agree. .4 is definitely better than .2. Unfortunately our op only has 7 amp channels available so... I think a subwoofer upgrade should be in his future also, so I’m thinking some atmos is better than no atmos. In that case, get a sub, and in the future get a new AVR. Maybe?

 

[2channel lover]

I totally agree. .4 is definitely better than .2. Unfortunately our op only has 7 amp channels available so... I think a subwoofer upgrade should be in his future also, so I’m thinking some atmos is better than no atmos. In that case, get a sub, and in the future get a new AVR. Maybe?

I guess the OP's thought process is to add to his HT experience rather than fix what in his mind is not broken....not a bad mindset to have.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I guess the OP's thought process is to add to his HT experience rather than fix what in his mind is not broken....not a bad mindset to have.

Well, sometimes ya don’t know what ya don’t know!
That comes from experience. I feel like you can only take away so much from a forum like this and at some point the training wheels slowly come off, and the next thing you know, your on your way!

I think in this case, adding atmos is cheap and easy since the AVR is in place. Seems like a good start. After awhile we can toss him down into the abysmal rabbit hole of subwoofer mania!!!

 

[2channel lover]

Well, sometimes ya don’t know what ya don’t know!
That comes from experience. I feel like you can only take away so much from a forum like this and at some point the training wheels slowly come off, and the next thing you know, your on your way!

The key word there is experience...once you've experienced a really good HT system, it can put you on that path to at least knowing what you didn't know before.

We had some friends over a couple of weeks ago and at some point the sound system became a topic. Me being somewhat proud of it, I was happy to take them up to the loft to hear the real thing (they had been listening to the whole house system)...the husband knew a little bit about audio. He said the music sounds incredible but we're also both movie buffs...how does that sound?

With that I put on a blu ray movie (one they already have)...they were completely blown away! They said we've seen this movie a few times, but we've never heard it sound like this on a home system.

 

[bigkrazy155]

The key word there is experience...once you've experienced a really good HT system, it can put you on that path to at least knowing what you didn't know before.

We had some friends over a couple of weeks ago and at some point the sound system became a topic. Me being somewhat proud of it, I was happy to take them up to the loft to hear the real thing (they had been listening to the whole house system)...the husband knew a little bit about audio. He said the music sounds incredible but we're also both movie buffs...how does that sound?

With that I put on a blu ray movie (one they already have)...they were completely blown away! They said we've seen this movie a few times, but we've never heard it sound like this on a home system.

Was it fury road?! I'd love to watch that in a real HT!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

The key word there is experience...once you've experienced a really good HT system, it can put you on that path to at least knowing what you didn't know before.

We had some friends over a couple of weeks ago and at some point the sound system became a topic. Me being somewhat proud of it, I was happy to take them up to the loft to hear the real thing (they had been listening to the whole house system)...the husband knew a little bit about audio. He said the music sounds incredible but we're also both movie buffs...how does that sound?

With that I put on a blu ray movie (one they already have)...they were completely blown away! They said we've seen this movie a few times, but we've never heard it sound like this on a home system.

Nice! I looove playing stuff for people that they “think” they know so well. Then they say, wow, I had noooo idea that stuff was there(music and movies).
Another favorite thing is when some subterranean bass comes along and they start looking around the house and ask, what the hell is that? I say, oh this? And turn it up!!!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Was it fury road?! I'd love to watch that in a real HT!

Mad max fury road. It’s a mind Fukk but the bass and atmos are exemplary.

 

[2channel lover]

Was it fury road?! I'd love to watch that in a real HT!

That is good, will have to add to my very limited BR collection....it was John Wick atmos.

 

[2channel lover]

Nice! I looove playing stuff for people that they “think” they know so well. Then they say, wow, I had noooo idea that stuff was there(music and movies).
Another favorite thing is when some subterranean bass comes along and they start looking around the house and ask, what the hell is that? I say, oh this? And turn it up!!!

Exactly...admittedly I get a kick out that! The Salks clarity and sound staging really got them reeled in...then some house shaking bass...had the wife grabbing her seat....lol.

Unfortunately it's only a 2 seat HT space...for the real effect.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Exactly...admittedly I get a kick out that! The Salks clarity and sound staging really got them reeled in...then some house shaking bass...had the wife grabbing her seat....lol.

Unfortunately it's only a 2 seat HT space...for the real effect.

Haha! Awesome...I can see her face.

 

[roodoob]

Just use audyssey. Afterwards you can turn it off and it will still maintain all the level and distance settings. Or leave it on...

just wanted to mention this

following research / qweshuns / advice here and from Denon, another forum...
got 2 upward firing Elac, Atmos enabled speakers, positioned on front towers ..

as suggested ...re-did the Audyssey
and
the levels i now view , following that exercise , are, what seems,
well below the recommendations from the speaker manufact
( Aperion)
in the paperwork that came w/ the speakers ...
for ex
front towers : L +1dB / R 0dB ... Audyssey - 2.0dB for both
Surr : R +3dB / L +5dB
only the subwoofer came close to recommendations ?!?

is this an indication i should just set them manually to the manuf recommendations ?
or
is it more an indication of the acoustic properties of the room ?

thanx

 

[roodoob]

just to clarify ....ALL of my Audyssey settings, on that last setup, were in the Negative !
save the sub, as mentioned

 

[Erod]

Atmos is really cool. The best part of Atmos is NOT the overhead sound, which is gimmicky. THE BEST PART OF ATMOS IS THAT IT GETS RID OF THE CENTER CHANNEL DIALOGUE EMPHASIS. Instead, the sound of the character's voice follows them around on screen, and it is a subtle effect, but it so much more immersive when the voices come from a face instead of the center channel. The front height set up is better than top mounted speakers for this reason.

Remember, Atmos is spatial and not channel driven.

I'm using Polk OMW3's, and they match their price, nothing special except for the mounting possibilities.

Also, up-firing speakers are a joke.

It's a super cool concept. I just wish it was being implemented in that fashion. It's not except for the rarest of cases.

Most Atmos (so far) is really lazy. They aren't triangulating sound around your room by implementing multiple speakers for each sound to "place" it in the room. I've tested many discs by turning off my bed channels to see what is being pulled into the heights, and it's limited at best. For the most part, certain speakers play certain sounds by themselves just as before.

Hopefully, more will be put into this step of production in time.

 

[Hattrick17]

For what it is worth. I have had a similar challenge trying to get great surround and Atmos in a Great room with hard surfaces everywhere vaulted ceilings and a room that is so open you can hear everything everywhere when playing movies or music. I opted for height channels mounted on the front wall above which was about 9' 6" and on a rear soffit to my kitchen symmetrical to the front mounted speakers. Bear in mind one may need to override volume setting for these speakers to get the effects to one's preference. None dedicated HT rooms in Great Rooms or living rooms always will suffer a bit from a dedicated built HT room. The Atmos effect does work in my Great Room but not the same as in ceilings of a dedicated and built HT. But it still provides that extra bit of fun for content heavy with atmos. Note: My configuration is outstanding for multi channel music listening though!