5.1 or 5.1.2. Good speaker placement?

[AndrewJames13]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of building my house and I want to put together my home theater system. I would like to know what is my best option for my home theater. Having a 5.1.2 with Dobly Atmos? or a 5.1? or all in-ceiling speakers? Also if the speakers are in a good location. I have attached a picture of my LV plan for my future house. In the first picture (5.1.2) you can see that I added: 2 L/R front speakers, 1 center speaker, 2 surround L/R in-ceiling speakers, 2 Top middle in-ceiling speakers for Atmos. In the second picture (5.1) I added: 2 L/R front speakers, 1 center speaker and 2 surround L/R in-ceiling speakers. I have the Sony STR-DN1080 receiver so I believe this can work. My ceiling height is 9 ft. My surrounds are going to be on the c eiling due to the space and we didn't want to see any speakers hanging on the walls. I know it is not ideal but this can be the best approach for us. Someone told me that going with Atmos was not a good option for me due to the my room having a lot of open areas, I will like to hear a second opinion about that. Thank you!
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[shadyJ]

Hi everyone,​

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I am in the process of building my house and I want to put together my home theater system. I would like to know what is my best option for my home theater. Having a 5.1.2 with Dobly Atmos? or a 5.1? or all in-ceiling speakers? Also if the speakers are in a good location. I have attached a picture of my LV plan for my future house. In the first picture (5.1.2) you can see that I added: 2 L/R front speakers, 1 center speaker, 2 surround L/R in-ceiling speakers, 2 Top middle in-ceiling speakers for Atmos. In the second picture (5.1) I added: 2 L/R front speakers, 1 center speaker and 2 surround L/R in-ceiling speakers. I have the Sony STR-DN1080 receiver so I believe this can work. My ceiling height is 9 ft. My surrounds are going to be on the c eiling due to the space and we didn't want to see any speakers hanging on the walls. I know it is not ideal but this can be the best approach for us. Someone told me that going with Atmos was not a good option for me due to the my room having a lot of open areas, I will like to hear a second opinion about that. Thank you!​

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Attached Files:

I'm not sure Atmos would be worth it in your case. Atmos gas pretty stringent speaker placement requirements in order for the surround soundstage to make sense. If you put Atmos and the rear surrounds so close together, it would just make a blur out of the surround channel sound, especially since they are both going in-ceiling. I say skip Atmos, go regular 5.1. How well your front stage speakers perform and the way they are setup will have a much greater impact on the end sound than how you configure your surround sound speakers anyway.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Since you're in the process of building your house, may I also suggest conduit inside the walls (makes routing data cables much easier) and taking a massive overkill approach to data drops (Ethernet or fibre).

Estimate what you need... and double or triple it. Wire and termination points are cheap to design into a new build. Much more expensive and complicated after the drywall is up.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

After experiencing Atmos, DTSX, and upmixing movies and TV shows with DTS NeuralX in my 5.1.4 system, I say ABSOLUTELY get the Atmos ceiling speakers installed!

https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/the-dolby-atmos-dts-x-and-auro-3d-discussion-thread.112480/

Hearing rain, wind, thunder, fireworks, helicopters, planes, etc. from the ceiling speakers even when the movies are NOT in Atmos (by using NeuralX) is super cool.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I will disagree with the “not go with atmos due to open areas” idea since that would really be more applicable to bass which is sensitive to larger open space to and takes more subs.
Ima a big fan of atmos, and my feelings are some atmos is better than none, and it is fairly flexible. The problem is that your surrounds will be in ceiling. Atmos needs angular separation between the bed, and height layers. If they’re all on the same horizontal plane, it won’t be effective. If IC is your only option, then I’d skip it. Bummer...

 

[AndrewJames13]

I'm not sure Atmos would be worth it in your case. Atmos gas pretty stringent speaker placement requirements in order for the surround soundstage to make sense. If you put Atmos and the rear surrounds so close together, it would just make a blur out of the surround channel sound, especially since they are both going in-ceiling. I say skip Atmos, go regular 5.1. How well your front stage speakers perform and the way they are setup will have a much greater impact on the end sound than how you configure your surround sound speakers anyway.

Thank you for your response! You are right, because of the in-ceiling surround speakers I don't think Atmos works for me. I have another question that you might help me out. I already paid for 5 pre-wire in-ceiling speakers so I need to decide where are they going to be. So far I only have 2 ceiling speakers. Where do you think I should put the other 3 pre-wire ceiling speakers? I thought about 2 in the center next to the fan on each side L/R and I am not sure about the other one. Also, I moved the Sub a little closer to the TV. Do you think the Sub is on the right location? I added a picture of how my set up is now looking without the other 3 pre-wire ceiling speakers that I need to add. Thank you again!

 

[shadyJ]

Thank you for your response! You are right, because of the in-ceiling surround speakers I don't think Atmos works for me. I have another question that you might help me out. I already paid for 5 pre-wire in-ceiling speakers so I need to decide where are they going to be. So far I only have 2 ceiling speakers. Where do you think I should put the other 3 pre-wire ceiling speakers? I thought about 2 in the center next to the fan on each side L/R and I am not sure about the other one. Also, I moved the Sub a little closer to the TV. Do you think the Sub is on the right location? I added a picture of how my set up is now looking without the other 3 pre-wire ceiling speakers that I need to add. Thank you again!

Wait, you are doing in-ceiling fronts? Try to avoid that if possible. Fight, kick, scratch, scream out of that. In-ceilings make for a terrible front stage speaker system.

 

[AndrewJames13]

Wait, you are doing in-ceiling fronts? Try to avoid that if possible. Fight, kick, scratch, scream out of that. In-ceilings make for a terrible front stage speaker system.

No. Only in-ceiling for the back surround.

 

[shadyJ]

No. Only in-ceiling for the back surround.

ok. I would say maybe put two of the ceiling speakers in the middle area between the wall and the display. Not that you would ever want to use it, but who know, maybe one day you will have the room for an Atmos type system. As for the subwoofer, its hard to say where it will sound best. What you should do is just experiment with placements and keep it where it sounds best to you.