7.1.4 with couch against the wall...

C

Clemo

Audiophyte
Hi, I am in Australia and currently building a new home with a designated room for watching movies TV etc. I would like to ask you as it has been a long time since I've designed a Movie room with a reasonable 7.1 with ATMOS surround sound. The room's size is 5.7 X 3.3 metres (sorry about metrics) I thought of a Short Throw Samsung projector but when considering speakers I am a little lost. I was offered a SONOS wireless Sound Bar with 2 rears and a Subwoofer but this set up won't give me a true surround sound experience or it will? In my current home I have a 7.1 Movie room driven by a YAMAHA receiver with Left, Rigth and center speakers a Subwoofer (2 Presence speakers) and at rear 4 surround speakers plus 2 other presence speakers as well.
I think this requires lots of cabling but could be possible if i install it before the builders finish the walls or could I achieve this with wireless speakers??? Could somebody offer some advice in alternatives and also speakers position considering my couch will be positioned against the wall opposite to the screen?? Thank you in advance for taking the time to help. Clem
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
Hi, I am in Australia and currently building a new home with a designated room for watching movies TV etc. I would like to ask you as it has been a long time since I've designed a Movie room with a reasonable 7.1 with ATMOS surround sound. The room's size is 5.7 X 3.3 metres (sorry about metrics) I thought of a Short Throw Samsung projector but when considering speakers I am a little lost. I was offered a SONOS wireless Sound Bar with 2 rears and a Subwoofer but this set up won't give me a true surround sound experience or it will? In my current home I have a 7.1 Movie room driven by a YAMAHA receiver with Left, Rigth and center speakers a Subwoofer (2 Presence speakers) and at rear 4 surround speakers plus 2 other presence speakers as well.
I think this requires lots of cabling but could be possible if i install it before the builders finish the walls or could I achieve this with wireless speakers??? Could somebody offer some advice in alternatives and also speakers position considering my couch will be positioned against the wall opposite to the screen?? Thank you in advance for taking the time to help. Clem
No sound bar can compete against individual speakers when it comes to dispersion. I think you know this already but want confirmation so here it is. If you go to pro's & joes thread, you can see how I ran my cables in a basement that was already finished.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Why would you design a room for audio in mind with the couch against the wall?
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
With a couch against the wall, there's no place for surround back speakers. You'd better limit yourself to a 5.1 system.
 
C

Clemo

Audiophyte
Why would you design a room for audio in mind with the couch against the wall?
Hi, it is a new home and this particular room was designed as Rumpus room/Family room and this why the couch will be towards one side of the room. I think I still can achieve some good sound and enjoy a good movie without a formal "Movie room"
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Hi, it is a new home and this particular room was designed as Rumpus room/Family room and this why the couch will be towards one side of the room. I think I still can achieve some good sound and enjoy a good movie without a formal "Movie room"
You definitely can. But I would forego 7ch anything. With a couch against the wall, I would normally recommend 5.1.2. Although I have seen 5.1.4, I think it loses effectiveness that way. Sometimes less is more!
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
With a family room it's not uncommon to have problems placing the surrounds. If you have the receiver picked out, look through the manual and check for supported speaker setups. Some allow only certain combinations of surrounds and height and ATMOS speakers. I would give priority to surrounds over ATMOS if you can't fit them all. I can't easily accommodate both rear and side surrounds in my room, so I opted for surrounds mounted in the ceiling above the couch. Yes, it's a compromise, but we still get the surround experience in movies. I doubt your kids will complain. ;) If you want to go 5.1.2 you can add front heights (or whatever the manual supports). I would definitely pre-wire the speakers if possible. Leave lots of extra cable looped up at the ends in case you need to move things later. Cable is cheap compared to the time it takes to wire a finished room.
 
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AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
That's a relatively small room. I would just do 5.1.2 or 5.2.4 at most (although I've seen people put 13-16 speakers in rooms that size:D).
 
C

Clemo

Audiophyte
First of all thank you all for your advice. I still need to read more about 5.1.2 and 5.2.4 so in order to make decisions my question would be which system will bring a much better experience to our movie watching ATMOS or Surround, 5.1.2 or 5.2.4? I think I will buy a Yamaha Receiver ($1500/2000 ) not sure of which model but aiming to a decent unit that I could afford. Also your opinion on setting the speakers up, AUTO or Manual?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
In format talk 5.1.2 is same as 5.2.2 but in speaker layout it could be different....and 5.4.2 could well be better as far as that goes :). I'd go with two pairs of overheads at a minimum (might install for 6/3pr if I ever want to dig into the ceiling which so far I haven't wanted to). Using an avr's auto setup/room eq software I'd always at least try a coupla times both ways (with and without) before deciding to use it or not.
 
C

Clemo

Audiophyte
Hi lovinthehd, thanks for that. Your opinion on the 5.1.2, 5.2.2 and 5.4.2 means different speakers or positions of these? Also when you've said " I'd go with two pairs of overheads at a minimum(might install for 6/3pr)" what do you mean 6/3pr? and last, would I be able to get software that will help me with my particular room? and if this possible where could I aquire this software? Thank you so much for your input. Regards Clem
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Hi lovinthehd, thanks for that. Your opinion on the 5.1.2, 5.2.2 and 5.4.2 means different speakers or positions of these? Also when you've said " I'd go with two pairs of overheads at a minimum(might install for 6/3pr)" what do you mean 6/3pr? and last, would I be able to get software that will help me with my particular room? and if this possible where could I aquire this software? Thank you so much for your input. Regards Clem
Sorry kinda rushed that out....if I had a room suitable for 5.1.4 I would do that over 5.1.2.....and if going for 4 ceiling mounts might just go ahead and wire for 6 but depends on the permanency of the room for your "investment" I'd think rather than mine :). Usually the best cost effective way to go about the processing is thru an avr/pre-pro....
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
First of all thank you all for your advice. I still need to read more about 5.1.2 and 5.2.4 so in order to make decisions my question would be which system will bring a much better experience to our movie watching ATMOS or Surround, 5.1.2 or 5.2.4? I think I will buy a Yamaha Receiver ($1500/2000 ) not sure of which model but aiming to a decent unit that I could afford. Also your opinion on setting the speakers up, AUTO or Manual?
5.1.2 is 5 surround speakers (3 fronts 2 rear/side surrounds), 1 subwoofer and 2 effects channels. 5.2.4 would be the 5 surrounds, 2 subwoofers and 4 effects, which could be 4 ATMOS in ceiling.
By 6/3pr he means to prewire for 3 pairs (6 speakers) even if you only install 4. Saves work later if you change things up.

Have you decided not to re-use your Yamaha AVR? Are you buying all new speakers? Maybe provide a more detailed list of the gear you are going to re-use.
 
C

Clemo

Audiophyte
I need to step out for a couple of hours and truly appreciate your interest on my gear. On my return I will detail all of it and hopefully I might still be able to use some of it . Catch up with you later Regards Clem
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
No point going for .6 Atmos. .4 is going to be a compromise enough.
 
C

Clemo

Audiophyte
Here again, my current movie room has the seating position as it should with all the speakers needed for a 7.1 Surround sound and driven by a Yamaha RX-V2600 while the sound is fairly nice it wont support 4 K or ATMOS ( I think) and for this reason I like to upgrade my Epson EHTW8200 although an excellent projector it is only 1080p.
So new Yamaha, new projector, some of my existing speakers and adding some new ones to achieve ATMOS and considering the fact my new room will have corner lounge at the back. So 7 or 5 ? I will be happy to consider to mount the rear surround speakers on the ceiling. Would I be able to find some software which could help me ?
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Here again, my current movie room has the seating position as it should with all the speakers needed for a 7.1 Surround sound and driven by a Yamaha RX-V2600 while the sound is fairly nice it wont support 4 K or ATMOS ( I think) and for this reason I like to upgrade my Epson EHTW8200 although an excellent projector it is only 1080p.
So new Yamaha, new projector, some of my existing speakers and adding some new ones to achieve ATMOS and considering the fact my new room will have corner lounge at the back. So 7 or 5 ? I will be happy to consider to mount the rear surround speakers on the ceiling. Would I be able to find some software which could help me ?
There is hardware that can make mounting on the ceiling very possible. The problem is that having rear surrounds on the same plane as the TOPS(ceiling) will negate the benefits having Atmos in the first place. If there’s a lounge at the back, then speakers on stands probably doesn’t make sense either. Again, 5.x.x makes more sense to me. Do you have any pics?
 

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