I have no idea what I'm doing

[emorphien]

Focus on the angles for speaker placement. 110 degrees is where I suggest for the surrounds.

And almost directly above you but slightly forward for the overhead ceiling speakers. And have them spaced between the front and center speakers.

Of course, all the best guidelines then have to face reality

Side surrounds I'd at least put directly to your sides, but I agree that pushing back from 90 degrees is good. THX and Dolby disagree on the extent, but if you're in the 90-120 degree range you're going to make at least one of those organizations happy.

My experience with Atmos setups is that having the front atmos speakers at a 45 degree angle up, and angled out to the sides at 20-30 degrees out from straight ahead is optimal if i recall, but ymmv.

 

[Wardog555]

It's been updated to 110-120 degrees on the dolby speaker guide diagrams earlier this year I noticed.

 

[Tenatra]

Update.

Spent several hours in the "crawl space" in my ceiling coughing up insulation.

Got it all installed. Was unhappy with the bookshelf speakers and found out my center channel was blown, plus it was crappy with only one 4 inch speaker and a tweeter.

Got on Marketplace again and found 2 Sony Towers 3.5 ft tall and about a foot wide for $35.

Took the existing Left and Right bookshelf front speakers and wired 2 of them together as my new center channel. This worked very well. Super clear voices and plenty loud. Glad I didn't go buy another "center."

Everything sounds pretty good now (to me) and I do l enjoy the atmos effects.

I've adjusted some of the levels manually at this point. I've had to order a calibration mic to use auto calibration and am hoping to hear a little improvement after that as well.

There are 2 things that could be improved IMO:

One thing I've noticed that bugs me is I wish I actually did have dedicated rear speakers as well. This might be because I have an open floor plan with about an 8' empty space behind my couch, but my current AV receiver doesn't support 7.1.2, so I guess I'll live without for now.

My subwoofer works, but doesn't deliver enough bass to suit me (probably also due to my open floor plan) So I'll keep an eye out for a deal on a nice 12 or something.

I can't believe how much time I've spent in the receiver menu figuring everything out, and then how much time I spent messing with tv settings, and then laptop settings trying to get surround sound from all of my potential movie sources.

Apparently Youtube doesn't support any kind of surround sound? and only my front towers play, which is annoying since I use YT a lot. This was another reason I upgrade from the 2 4.5 inch bookshelfs to the larger towers.


Anyway. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[emorphien]

Apparently Youtube doesn't support any kind of surround sound? and only my front towers play, which is annoying since I use YT a lot. This was another reason I upgrade from the 2 4.5 inch bookshelfs to the larger towers

You could use surround sound processing in your receiver to have it upmix to surround, but it's not the same and that can be weird at times. There's also always the option for all channel stereo.

I do think I saw something recently saying YouTube is testing surround sound support, but I'm not 100% on that.

 

[Tenatra]

You could use surround sound processing in your receiver to have it upmix to surround, but it's not the same and that can be weird at times. There's also always the option for all channel stereo.

I do think I saw something recently saying YouTube is testing surround sound support, but I'm not 100% on that.

Funny thing is I selected both of those options on my receiver as far as I can tell and was still only getting stereo from the towers. I haven't been able to figure it out, but would certainly be worth my time if I could. STR-DH790 is the receiver.

 

[lovinthehd]

Funny thing is I selected both of those options on my receiver as far as I can tell and was still only getting stereo from the towers. I haven't been able to figure it out, but would certainly be worth my time if I could. STR-DH790 is the receiver.

Pages 41-43 of your manual explain your options with sound modes for what speakers will be used https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/4726/890436b47fd2ffcc4003f34dc5f2592c/47269051M.pdf

 

[Tenatra]

Pages 41-43 of your manual explain your options with sound modes for what speakers will be used https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/4726/890436b47fd2ffcc4003f34dc5f2592c/47269051M.pdf

Yeah, I downloaded and read all that. I couldn't figure it out even after trying all the modes.

 

[lovinthehd]

I have an old Sony avr, it is a bit different in layout/terminology for the sound modes compared to my Denons and Onkyo. However, if you enable the basic upmixers (Dolby Surround or Neural X) to a 2.0 signal with the movie button you should get multich surround sound. On my avrs I have that choice with the music button as well, but this Sony is a bit different per those charts.

Maybe time for a recap.....just what speakers do you have setup now and how are they connected?

 

[Wardog555]

Youtube does have surround sound. I experienced it on my Nvidia shield for the first time ever recently. Not all content has it though

 

[lovinthehd]

Youtube does have surround sound. I experienced it on my Nvidia shield for the first time ever recently. Not all content has it though

Since I was curious on that here's how https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/11904456?hl=en

 

[Tenatra]

I have an old Sony avr, it is a bit different in layout/terminology for the sound modes compared to my Denons and Onkyo. However, if you enable the basic upmixers (Dolby Surround or Neural X) to a 2.0 signal with the movie button you should get multich surround sound. On my avrs I have that choice with the music button as well, but this Sony is a bit different per those charts.

Maybe time for a recap.....just what speakers do you have setup now and how are they connected?

I have the center channel consisting of two speakers sitting side by side in the center. These are both hooked to the center channel.

left and right front towers, sub, and then the left and right rear surrounds. Then I have ceiling speakers for Atmos.

All of them are wired up correctly to the corresponding spots on the back of the receiver as everything works on most streaming services etc.

I've got it all working on my Xbox and Roku TV for the surround sound using eArc HDMI.

But the YouTube app will only play the left and right front towers on every thing I've tried selecting for some reason. I don't mind if it's just basic stereo if I can get it to hit the surrounds and preferably the sub.



Also, my phone will connect via Bluetooth and play on all speakers no matter what it is via stereo.

 

[Tenatra]

So now I'm able to get surround sound via the laptop on YouTube through the receiver.. however I can't get it to work via the Roku TV app.

 

[ryanosaur]

I have the center channel consisting of two speakers sitting side by side in the center. These are both hooked to the center channel.

This is a very bad idea as connecting two speakers in parallel will halve the impedance and could damage your equipment. I would strongly advise immediately disconnecting the second Speaker and operating the Center Channel as it is intended: as a single Speaker.

 

[lovinthehd]

I have the center channel consisting of two speakers sitting side by side in the center. These are both hooked to the center channel.

left and right front towers, sub, and then the left and right rear surrounds. Then I have ceiling speakers for Atmos.

All of them are wired up correctly to the corresponding spots on the back of the receiver as everything works on most streaming services etc.

I've got it all working on my Xbox and Roku TV for the surround sound using eArc HDMI.

But the YouTube app will only play the left and right front towers on every thing I've tried selecting for some reason. I don't mind if it's just basic stereo if I can get it to hit the surrounds and preferably the sub.



Also, my phone will connect via Bluetooth and play on all speakers no matter what it is via stereo.

You generally only get rear surrounds (for 7.1) after using the surrounds (for 5.1)....so might want to confirm that....some avrs for the 5.1 layer wouldn't recognize rear surrounds, my old Sony only has one back surround (6.1) so not positive Sony needs to be setup that way or not. The center with two speakers isn't a good idea IMO but could work. How is the Roku connected to the avr?

 

[Tenatra]

Yay...Update. I changed a setting on the TV itself from Auto to Passthrough. Full surround sound from YouTube including Atmos samples are all working.

FYI.

Never realized how complex all this stuff got.. Tons of receiver settings, tons of TV settings, tons of computer settings.

Thanks guys! I don't know how many hours I've wasted.

I didn't think it would be a TV setting since all of the movie apps on my TV were playing correctly... Go figure.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yay...Update. I changed a setting on the TV itself from Auto to Passthrough. Full surround sound from YouTube including Atmos samples are all working.

FYI.

Never realized how complex all this stuff got.. Tons of receiver settings, tons of TV settings, tons of computer settings.

Thanks guys! I don't know how many hours I've wasted.

I didn't think it would be a TV setting since all of the movie apps on my TV were playing correctly... Go figure.

Success is good. Yes avrs and tvs and drm and all that good stuff can be a pain. What did the tv manual say about the audio settings?

 

[Tenatra]

This is a very bad idea as connecting two speakers in parallel will halve the impedance and could damage your equipment. I would strongly advise immediately disconnecting the second Speaker and operating the Center Channel as it is intended: as a single Speaker.

Both speakers are 8 ohms and they are wired in series for a total of 16. The receiver says it's capable of 6 to 16. Is this not true?

I have a bit of experience in this department due to hooking up stereo systems in cars. I guess I should have clarified that they are in series.

 

[Tenatra]

Success is good. Yes avrs and tvs and drm and all that good stuff can be a pain. What did the tv manual say about the audio settings?

I would be lying if I said I had looked at a TV manual. I looked through pretty much every menu on the TV and I guess I just never noticed this option.

 

[Tenatra]

You generally only get rear surrounds (for 7.1) after using the surrounds (for 5.1)....so might want to confirm that....some avrs for the 5.1 layer wouldn't recognize rear surrounds, my old Sony only has one back surround (6.1) so not positive Sony needs to be setup that way or not. The center with two speakers isn't a good idea IMO but could work. How is the Roku connected to the avr?

This is a 7.2 receiver with the option of choosing between the rear surrounds as height speakers. You just have to select it in the menu options.

I'm kind of still wishing I had known what I was buying and got a 9.2 receiver now.

 

[Tenatra]

You generally only get rear surrounds (for 7.1) after using the surrounds (for 5.1)....so might want to confirm that....some avrs for the 5.1 layer wouldn't recognize rear surrounds, my old Sony only has one back surround (6.1) so not positive Sony needs to be setup that way or not. The center with two speakers isn't a good idea IMO but could work. How is the Roku connected to the avr?

It's a Roku TV. Hooked through eArc HDMI.