Ceiling Speakers & Placement?

[dpriest]

Hi all,
I am relatively new to the world of home theater, ceiling speakers height placement for speakers in general. I am designing my home theater room in a house I just bought. In the past I have done a 5.1 system but waiting for the Yamaha Aventage a2a 7.2 receiver to get to me. I have pictures of the room with the previous owner's setup. The buit-in cabinet will remain and I have bookshelf speakers that I was thinking of placing the L,R & Center speakers similarly to the picture. One of the pictures shows the rear L & R speakers mounted on the wall high close to the ceiling. The seating area and LP will be somewhere in the middle between the front and back of the room. I am also planning on having 2 subs, one placed in the front and one in the back.

Question #1: Would it be better to mount my rear speakers in the same height position or to mount them lower on the wall?

Question #2: I was considering mounting 2 speakers in the ceiling. I would assume the ceiling speakers will take advantage of movies encoded with Atmos as the audio. Will the added ceiling speakers be able to add to the sound from non-Atmos audio with movies and would either DTS or Dolby 5.1 benefit from the ceiling speakers?

 

[James S.]

Your bed layer should be ear height when seated. So you would need to lower those speakers. You need the seperation between the bed layer and ceiling speakers for Atmos to work properly. Also, the receivers will have an upmixer that will upmix non-Atmos/DTS:X material to put information to the ceiling speakers.

 

[dpriest]

Perfect. Now I am looking for recommendations on speakers to get for the ceiling. I would need a speaker with a box because the floor upstairs is finished/kitchen area.

 

[dpriest]

I just received two of the RSL C34E speakers thanks to all the recommendations and great reviews. In terms of placement in the ceiling, I would assume I would want to place them directly over the main sitting area just to the left and right or would I want them slightly in front of the sitting area?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I just received two of the RSL C34E speakers thanks to all the recommendations and great reviews. In terms of placement in the ceiling, I would assume I would want to place them directly over the main sitting area just to the left and right or would I want them slightly in front of the sitting area?

If you’re using them for .2 Atmos tops, they should go roughly a couple feet in front of the LP. Maybe directly above where your feet are sitting down and stretched out. I have diagrams(or others might) to illustrate.
Basically 30° foreword and in line with the mains, as long as the ceiling is high enough, like 8-9'. For lower ceilings I’d bring em in a bit otherwise the phantom image could collapse.

 

[dpriest]

If you’re using them for .2 Atmos tops, they should go roughly a couple feet in front of the LP. Maybe directly above where your feet are sitting down and stretched out. I have diagrams(or others might) to illustrate.
Basically 30° foreword and in line with the mains, as long as the ceiling is high enough, like 8-9'. For lower ceilings I’d bring em in a bit otherwise the phantom image could collapse.

Thanks. The ceiling is 7'9" so maybe I'll bring them in a bit than 30°. I would like to see a diagram from you or others for the placement. In terms of how to use the ceiling speakers, I have a 5.1 system already although with this house I am probably going with 2 subwoofers. What would the two ceiling speakers be used for specifically and would that be considered a 7.1 or a 5.1.2 system? I don't dven know what the difference is between the two setups. I'm looking to learn from the masters in this forum so please explain.

 

[James S.]

It would be considered a 5.1.2 system. The ceiling speakers are used to play the height information from an Atmos or DTS:X track. Also, they are used when using the Dolby upmixer or DTS NeuralX that use the ceiling speakers to add height information on non-Atmos/DTS:X tracks.