5.1.2 or 5.1.4 in living room with couch up against rear wall?

[Magic815]

So I've always just run 5.1, but am considering adding recessed in-ceiling speakers to get either 5.1.2 or 5.1.4. My couch is up against the rear wall of the living room, so I've never been able to do normal height rears nor am I able to really get ceiling speakers behind the listener (and moving the couch forward is not an option).

Here is a rendering of my living room, with the current 5.1 speaker locations

• L/C/R are basically at seated ear height. Surrounds are 1.5ft above seated ear height, with downward angled faces

Here is where I think the speaker placements could work for my living room for 5.1.2 (marked in the blue +'s as Option 1, and marked in the green +'s as Option 2) and 5.1.4 (marked in the red +'s), based on my room limitations

• The yellow circles are where we currently have recessed ceiling lights, so the recessed ceiling speakers would need to be placed around them. The wife does not want me to replace any lights with speakers.
• For 5.1.2, Option 1: The blue +'s are 47 degrees off horizontal from the listening position
• For 5.1.2, Option 2: The green +'s are 70 degrees off horizontal from the listening position. I could have these move back further, but I worry they'll be getting too close to the surrounds
• For 5.1.4: The red +'s are 90 degrees and 34 degrees off horizontal from the listening position. The 90 degree ones would only be 3 feet from the surrounds (if you drew a string between them, point to point)
• This is what the Dolby site recommends for 5.1.2
• This is what the Dolby site recommends for 5.1.4

Due to the fact that I can't really get any ceiling speakers behind the listener, does a 5.1.4 setup where two are above and two are in front (red +'s) sound really that much better than either of the 5.1.2 options (blue or green +'s) I've drawn up?

While I don't mind spending more for a better experience, the 5.1.4 will require me to spend about $300 more on the receiver (I'm buying a new receiver for 4K passthrough and XT32 anyways), an additional ceiling speaker pair which will likely run me another $150-200, and running 4 speakers in the ceiling vs 2 will certainly have a slightly higher labor/installation cost.

So what do you all recommend, based on my specific room setup? 5.1.2 (Option 1 or Option 2) or 5.1.4? Or would you mark their preferred placements in spot(s) I haven't marked? Any insight is appreciated.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I think I’d go 5.1.2 at the blue locations.

 

[Magic815]

I think I’d go 5.1.2 at the blue locations.

That's actually where I was leaning to as well (but I didn't want to lead the witness). I made this same post on another forum, and got told to do 5.1.2 at green by one replier, and got told to do 5.1.2 at the front reds by another - which was surprising.

However, the greens just seem really close to my 1.5 ft raised surrounds, and the front reds being 34 degrees off horizontal just seems really outside the 65-100 degree guideline. Blues at least seems to be a middle ground between the two - giving me some breathing room from the surrounds, but not getting too far from the guideline (and the tweeters will be angled to point back at the listeners from the blue position).

What do you think about the width of them? If they go in line with the lights (like I've drawn), that would put them 7.5 ft apart. Also, due to the nature of my TV and L/C/R being left-justified on the front wall of the room, do you think it's ok that the ceiling speakers don't follow perfectly vertical lines off of the L and R speakers?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

It’s really kinda tough to call. Imo, green is too far back, although it’s probably closer to Dolby’s guide. Red, is just too far forward(but not a lot). So I think blue splits the difference best depending on ceiling height etc.
What is the ceiling height, and overall room dims?(did I miss that?)
FWIW, Atmos is pretty forgiving and while not ideal, the width looks ok, and being a little bit off center will probably work out, as long as you have tempered expectations. That’s not to say it won’t be good though.

 

[Magic815]

It’s really kinda tough to call. Imo, green is too far back, although it’s probably closer to Dolby’s guide. Red, is just too far forward(but not a lot). So I think blue splits the difference best depending on ceiling height etc.
What is the ceiling height, and overall room dims?(did I miss that?)
FWIW, Atmos is pretty forgiving and while not ideal, the width looks ok, and being a little bit off center will probably work out, as long as you have tempered expectations. That’s not to say it won’t be good though.

Ah, sorry I should have mentioned. The room is 12.5 ft wide x 15 ft long. Ceilings are only 7.5 ft (6" shorter than the standard ceiling).

If I'm going to go with just 2 Atmos speakers, and knowing that I have ceilings on the shorter side, any recs on specific speakers I should look at? Should I go with 6.5" or 8" ones? The HTD HDX-R65, R65AIM, and R80 caught my eye ($150 per pair, $180 per pair, and $200 per pair, respectively). Although I see that a lot of folks warn to not overspend on Atmos, and there seems to be plenty of cheaper options. For comparison, my sub was $600 (the PB-2000, which was normally $800), and my L/C/R/SL/SR were $950 in total (Chane A2.4, A1.5s and A4.5s), so I'd want my budget on the two Atmos to roughly align with those.