Atmos speaker orientation

[3db]

I have a question about speaker orientation for the atmos pair that I'm hanging on the ceiling. Do I keep the woofer tweeter orientation in the same plane as my mains and surrounds or do I hang them 90 degrees to that?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Which speakers are you using? You’ll want to mount them so they point to the LP on axis as much as you can.

 

[3db]

Which speakers are you using? You’ll want to mount them so they point to the LP on axis as much as you can.

For the life of me..I cant figure out what you mean by LP. Drawing an acronym blank tonight... The speakers are PSB CS1000 indoor/outdoor speakers. I posted pics of them in what did you buy lately thread.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Lol. Sorry I mean Listening Position when I say LP. I think the more common description is MLP, or main listening position.
In any case, for .2 Atmos I seem to remember about 30° In Front of the LP or about where your feet would be sticking straight out, and then straight up from there. Doing .4 you’d try for 45° in font of and behind the LP. Or the same distance from seated ear height to the ceiling, then take that and go the same distance in front of and to the rear of that. So if it’s 5’ from ear height to the ceiling, you’d go 5’ in front, and back.

For .2 here’s the recommendation.

It definitely shows that they should be in line with the mains. But it depends on how far apart they are and how high the ceiling is, and overall room width.

 

[3db]

Lol. Sorry I mean Listening Position when I say LP. I think the more common description is MLP, or main listening position.
In any case, for .2 Atmos I seem to remember about 30° In Front of the LP or about where your feet would be sticking straight out, and then straight up from there. Doing .4 you’d try for 45° in font of and behind the LP. Or the same distance from seated ear height to the ceiling, then take that and go the same distance in front of and to the rear of that. So if it’s 5’ from ear height to the ceiling, you’d go 5’ in front, and back.

For .2 here’s the recommendation.

It definitely shows that they should be in line with the mains. But it depends on how far apart they are and how high the ceiling is, and overall room width.

LMAO...Listening position... now who would of thunk that? *slaps my forhead*

It wasnt entirely clear to me looking at the same diagram if the speakers needed to be inline or at right angles. Im going for the 65 degree angle headshot but have the ability to tilt the speakers towards or away from me because Im going to be replacing that reclining sofa with a new one and Im giving myself 6" of clearance from back of sofa to the wall so that I can recline. My ceiling is 90" or 7.5 feet tall.

 

[3db]

I'm waiting for my replacement driver to come in from PSB as this one has a tear. This for my Dolby Atmos speakers. I opened 2 100' rolls of 16 gauge wire and did lay the wire today and connected it to the AVR . The other end is still part of the spool but I did label the spools with Atmos Left and Atmos Right. Once I get the driver replaced, I will hang the speakers from the ceiling and connect them. I still have to buy cable trays that hide the wire once I go up the walls and to the ceilings. I also took time to clean up some of the cabling at back getting rid of some of the longer HDMI chords for shorter ones. It looks alot better now.

 

[TLS Guy]

Which speakers are you using? You’ll want to mount them so they point to the LP on axis as much as you can.

That is where we disagree completely. The last thing you want is to localize to an Atmos speaker. That is why I use good full rangers, that radiate in the horizontal plane 360. It really works very well indeed, especially when used with the upmixer. Actually, that is really true of all speakers. If things are optimal, then you should never locate to ANY individual speaker. Sounds should move seamlessly 3D. The ideal is that if someone went into you room and was in the listening area, and they new nothing of speakers, the should not be able to discern that the speakers had anything to do with what they are hearing. The true object is to create a realistic soundfield that draws no attention to any speaker.

 

[3db]

That is where we disagree completely. The last thing you want is to localize to an Atmos speaker. That is why I use good full rangers, that radiate in the horizontal plane 360. It really works very well indeed, especially when used with the upmixer. Actually, that is really true of all speakers. If things are optimal, then you should never locate to ANY individual speaker. Sounds should move seamlessly 3D. The ideal is that if someone went into you room and was in the listening area, and they new nothing of speakers, the should not be able to discern that the speakers had anything to do with what they are hearing. The true object is to create a realistic soundfield that draws no attention to any speaker.

The atmos speakers I have are going up whether they are ideal or not. The orientation question still stands.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

That is where we disagree completely. The last thing you want is to localize to an Atmos speaker. That is why I use good full rangers, that radiate in the horizontal plane 360. It really works very well indeed, especially when used with the upmixer. Actually, that is really true of all speakers. If things are optimal, then you should never locate to ANY individual speaker. Sounds should move seamlessly 3D. The ideal is that if someone went into you room and was in the listening area, and they new nothing of speakers, the should not be able to discern that the speakers had anything to do with what they are hearing. The true object is to create a realistic soundfield that draws no attention to any speaker.

Well Mark. We probably agree more than you think. My point of aiming at the speaker at the listener was to do exactly what yo said, and NOT call attention to itself. I’ve always found speakers to be better on axis. If I understood the original question, he’s mounting BS speakers on the ceiling. Imo he’ll get a much better, clearer soundfield by aiming towards the LP. Are you saying he’d better to aim them straight down towards the floor?

 

[Trebdp83]

Dolby Atmos Speaker Setup Guides

Browse our wide-range of Dolby Atmos speaker step-by-step setup guides to find the best speaker placement and configuration for your home theater.

www.dolby.com

 

[TLS Guy]

Well Mark. We probably agree more than you think. My point of aiming at the speaker at the listener was to do exactly what yo said, and NOT call attention to itself. I’ve always found speakers to be better on axis. If I understood the original question, he’s mounting BS speakers on the ceiling. Imo he’ll get a much better, clearer soundfield by aiming towards the LP. Are you saying he’d better to aim them straight down towards the floor?

May be he should orientate them 30 degrees off axis. He should still have an optimal FR with less direct sound. The problem with these speakers is that very few publish any data to use to guide your decision.

 

[afterlife2]

Mine are basically like this setup. Front only. No back ones. Leaning towards my ears. Great for helicopters or airplanes:

 

[3db]

May be he should orientate them 30 degrees off axis. He should still have an optimal FR with less direct sound. The problem with these speakers is that very few publish any data to use to guide your decision.

What speakers are you talking about Mark?

 

[TLS Guy]

What speakers are you talking about Mark?

I had a look at those speakers. I thought you were using ceiling mounted Atmos speakers, with tweeters you can angle. I see those are designed as wall mounted speakers, not specifically for your application. From the crossover design there should not be any overly troublesome lobing issues. I would just point them straight to the floor, like you would an Atmos ceiling speaker.

I used 6 3/4" full range Mark Audio drivers in 0.25 cu ft. sealed enclosures.

This is how they look finished with the grills on.

The point is they don't draw attention to themselves acoustically or visually.

The thing that has surprised me the most is how well the Dolby upmixer now works. It really completes the transfer of the acoustic space of the venue to the room. How it achieves this I have no idea, but it does.

 

[3db]

I had a look at those speakers. I thought you were using ceiling mounted Atmos speakers, with tweeters you can angle. I see those are designed as wall mounted speakers, not specifically for your application. From the crossover design there should not be any overly troublesome lobing issues. I would just point them straight to the floor, like you would an Atmos ceiling speaker.

I used 6 3/4" full range Mark Audio drivers in 0.25 cu ft. sealed enclosures.

This is how they look finished with the grills on.

The point is they don't draw attention to themselves acoustically or visually.

The thing that has surprised me the most is how well the Dolby upmixer now works. It really completes the transfer of the acoustic space of the venue to the room. How it achieves this I have no idea, but it does.

I agree with your prinicples on this but Im dealing with the reality of a plastered stipple ceiling in a small room and Im confined to what I can do. Do I orient them in line with the mains or at 90 degree to the main?

 

[TLS Guy]

I agree with your prinicples on this but Im dealing with the reality of a plastered stipple ceiling in a small room and Im confined to what I can do. Do I orient them in line with the mains or at 90 degree to the main?

Yes, they should be in line with the mains. There will be some lobing issues with the design of those speakers. To minimize the effect of that I recommend that a line drawn through the long axis of those speakers be at right angles to the front plane of the main speakers.

 

[3db]

Slooooooooowly but surely, Im getting my atmos setup together. I hung one speaker today from the ceiling and have the bracket installed for the second. I'm waiting for the 2nd replacement woofer to show up before hanging the loudspeaker. Tomorrow, Im going to put into place the white plastic speaker cable concealers along the base boards and up to the ceiling in one corner of the room before running them along the ceiling. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Sounds good. Let’s see em!

 

[Jhmeg2]

Lol. Sorry I mean Listening Position when I say LP. I think the more common description is MLP, or main listening position.
In any case, for .2 Atmos I seem to remember about 30° In Front of the LP or about where your feet would be sticking straight out, and then straight up from there. Doing .4 you’d try for 45° in font of and behind the LP. Or the same distance from seated ear height to the ceiling, then take that and go the same distance in front of and to the rear of that. So if it’s 5’ from ear height to the ceiling, you’d go 5’ in front, and back.

For .2 here’s the recommendation.

It definitely shows that they should be in line with the mains. But it depends on how far apart they are and how high the ceiling is, and overall room width.

ok I'm new here and to this stuff.... but my ceiling height will be about 11-12 feet, and my fronts might be about 10 feet apart with LP about 25 feet from front stage. If I do a 5.2.2, or 7.2.2 where would I need tp place speakers? I tried to use the calculator app thingy but it said my fronts were to wide or my atmos were too wide.... I'm kinda lost.

 

[3db]

Here's a link. Hopefully, this helps.

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