Dolby Atmos Mono Pole or Bi Pole Speakers

[rjharle]

I'm getting four Focal Aria 906s and have a question regarding Dolby Atmos. I do understand how these speaker types work, but which one would be better for my setup ?
The Room Size = 21.5" X 13.5" X 8"
Focal speakers 7.2.4 = 936 and CC900 fronts, 906 sides, [906 (Mono pole) or SR 900 (Bi Pole) for the rears?]

 

[ryanosaur]

Monopole.

Generally speaking, most seem to agree that unless you have a Surround or Rear Surround placement very close to your LP where the more disperse soundfield of Bipoles can "soften" their nearfield impact.
Using such Speakers further away only serves to muddy their effect.

If you have the room to place your Speakers properly for a 7-channel bed layer, stay with all monopole.
If you don't have room behind your LP, you will likely have better success using a properly set up 5-channel bed layer using all monopoles rather than shoehorning those rears in.
If the latter, and you are dead set on putting rears right by your LP, that is where you may benefit from a bipole design.

Now you said Atmos... Are you considering installing Height or Top Speakers?

 

[rjharle]

Monopole.

Generally speaking, most seem to agree that unless you have a Surround or Rear Surround placement very close to your LP where the more disperse soundfield of Bipoles can "soften" their nearfield impact.
Using such Speakers further away only serves to muddy their effect.

If you have the room to place your Speakers properly for a 7-channel bed layer, stay with all monopole.
If you don't have room behind your LP, you will likely have better success using a properly set up 5-channel bed layer using all monopoles rather than shoehorning those rears in.
If the latter, and you are dead set on putting rears right by your LP, that is where you may benefit from a bipole design.

Now you said Atmos... Are you considering installing Height or Top Speakers?

Yes, I have four Klipsch CDT-5200-CII ceiling. LP is flexible, but was thinking about 6' off the back wall. My two main concerns are content placement “object-based surround sound” and ambiance.

 

[ryanosaur]

Your best bet is to look at the Dolby Speaker placement recommendations for laying out 5-channel and 7-channel bed layers to make your final decision.
You know your room best, and should be able to decide what compromises may work for you or not.

Keep in mind, your actual Atmos Speaker placement (the Top Speakers) kind of dictates where your LP will need to be. If those Speakers are not installed yet, then you will have a little more flexibility.
It is generally recommended that Top Front and Top Back are the most effective in a .4 Atmos layout. Almost everybody seems to agree that a properly set-up 5.x.4 will be far more effective than a poorly designed 7.x.4.

Dolby Atmos Speaker Setup Guides

Browse our wide-range of Dolby Atmos speaker step-by-step setup guides to find the best speaker placement and configuration for your home theater.

www.dolby.com

Scroll down to see Dolby's recommendations for 7.x.4 and 5.x.4. These are Dolby's ideal placements, so remember that you can still play around a bit to get your own room setup. Of course, the closer you can stick to the recommendations, one would expect perhaps a better result.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

As ryan noted there is flexibility here with Atmos. With 6’ off the back wall, I think you can do 7.x.4. You’ll want to place the tops at 45° fore and aft as well as to the side. Easy geometry. Measure seated ear height to the ceiling and place them that distance fore and aft. Some of the early and less granular literature shows the tops in line with the mains. Iirc the Atmos renderer expects tops to be in line with left center and right center.
Edit:Tapatalk won’t let me share images at the moment for some reason.
Anyway. While definitely not my first choice, bipoles can work. But in this case I would put them at the side position. That room is narrow enough for just a single viewer, but if anyone is at the end of the couch they’ll get hotspotting for sure.

 

[rjharle]

Your best bet is to look at the Dolby Speaker placement recommendations for laying out 5-channel and 7-channel bed layers to make your final decision.
You know your room best, and should be able to decide what compromises may work for you or not.

Keep in mind, your actual Atmos Speaker placement (the Top Speakers) kind of dictates where your LP will need to be. If those Speakers are not installed yet, then you will have a little more flexibility.
It is generally recommended that Top Front and Top Back are the most effective in a .4 Atmos layout. Almost everybody seems to agree that a properly set-up 5.x.4 will be far more effective than a poorly designed 7.x.4.

Dolby Atmos Speaker Setup Guides

Browse our wide-range of Dolby Atmos speaker step-by-step setup guides to find the best speaker placement and configuration for your home theater.

www.dolby.com

Scroll down to see Dolby's recommendations for 7.x.4 and 5.x.4. These are Dolby's ideal placements, so remember that you can still play around a bit to get your own room setup. Of course, the closer you can stick to the recommendations, one would expect perhaps a better result.

Using the "Dolby Theater Home Speaker Guide" It looks like they use four mono poles on stands angled to the LP. The distance for placement seems to be determined by the angle to LP in degrees. From what I see, I'll need for stands to archive the correct layout.

 

[ryanosaur]

Wall mounting can work, as well... It really just depends on your room.

Is your TV in the 13' wall, or the 21' wall?

This will make a very significant difference in what you can do.
Ideally, if this were a blank slate, I would put the TV on the center of the 13' wall, Speakers about 8-9' apart. LP would be about 10' back from the Speakers. (Speakers would be ~2-3' off the front wall.) Surrounds would be a little behind where your head would be. Rears at least 4' behind your LP. Subwoofer(s) are always tricky, but you have a rectangular room and should be easy to use the Welti/Devantier approach which would be to use at least 1 pair of Subs... you would need to try them out in different positions, but likely symmetrical or opposite corner placement.

Now... is this a blank slate? Or what challenges or compromises do you have to deal with.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Yes you can definitely wall mount as ryan said. Hell, when I went to Atmos, I had to change my sides to in wall. As long as they’re in the right place, it’s fine. In fact with your narrow room, IW might even be better.

 

[ryanosaur]

Yes you can definitely wall mount as ryan said. Hell, when I went to Atmos, I had to change my sides to in wall. As long as they’re in the right place, it’s fine. In fact with your narrow room, IW might even be better.

This.

My room is 11' wide and 2 seats wide is almost too much... for 1 seat, standmount Speakers are fine... If I had to put a love seat in there...

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Keep in mind, I didn’t go iw as a first choice. It was bargaining chips lol. My wife wanted my 35lb surrounds off the wall and I wanted Atmos. We ended up in the middle somewhere like usual. My room isn’t ultra wide, but at 16’ it’s fairly comfortable and the middle two seats don’t hotspot much, while the MLP is great. I was listening to Booka Shade’s dear future self last night in Atmos. It’s crazy! Just plane holographic sometimes. Auro? Couldn’t care less…

 

[rjharle]

Wall mounting can work, as well... It really just depends on your room.

Is your TV in the 13' wall, or the 21' wall?

This will make a very significant difference in what you can do.
Ideally, if this were a blank slate, I would put the TV in the center of the 13' wall, Speakers about 8-9' apart. LP would be about 10' back from the Speakers. (Speakers would be ~2-3' off the front wall.) Surrounds would be a little behind where your head would be. Rears at least 4' behind your LP. Subwoofer(s) are always tricky, but you have a rectangular room and should be easy to use the Welt/Decanter approach which would be to use at least 1 pair of Subs... you would need to try them out in different positions, but likely symmetrical or opposite corner placement.

Now... is this a blank slate? Or what challenges or compromises do you have to deal with.

Yes - I'm, sound proofing the room; decouple, track and clips, 2 5/8' Sheetrock and green glue. The 85" screen can definitely go center about 4' from the floor on the 13' wall, from there back it is all 21.5' of speakers and seating.

So, the speakers will be:
Focal Aria 939 - Front, - CC900 Center, - 4 906 2 Surround & 2 Rear, - 4 Klipsch CDT-5200-CII Height 1&2 - 2 SVS SB-13 Ultra Subs. That should be enough to rearrange the furniture

I just need to lay them out.

 

[jakkedtide]

Hey guys.

I am going to change my side surround to a monopole speaker as I can place it in the wall (the other side of the wall is the furnace room). The main reason is my bipole is about 6 ft from the LP, maybe more, and the speaker sticks out from the wall which in the way when walking.

I thought about in speaker but I can open the wall uo and have the back end of the speaker stick out in the furnace room.

Now foe the other side surround. I am not sure if I should keep that a bipole or switch it to a monopole as well. That side is much closer the the MLP and on an exterior wall so has to stick out from the wall. (not sure how in Wall speakers work)

I have all speakers klipsch. So I was thinking the klipsch rp 600m. Or maybe in Wall?

So maybe one rp600 on the far away (furnace room) wall that I can build in and then keep my bipole on the other side or switch that one to another rp600 or in wall. Not sure?,. Or in Wall on both sides so they match. Not sure What do do or think...

Thanks

Little side note, the rp600m are rear ported. The the one that I suggested to build in the wall, the back end is open to the furnace room. So that should be fine. The other side would have to be right against the wall, so that would not be good then.

 

[jakkedtide]

Anyone have any comments to help me?!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I only have two seconds. I will try to circle back later, but will say do not mix speaker types, as I understood the question.

 

[ryanosaur]

Anyone have any comments to help me?!

If you are actually thinking about trying to turn a free-standing style Stand-mount Speaker into an "in-wall," I would advise very strongly against this.
Regular "box" Speakers are not designed for an infinite baffle installation, they are designed to be in free space.
You will alter, perhaps significantly, the performance of the Speaker.

If you must change the Speakers it sounds like shopping for a good in-wall would be your best bet. You do not need to match your Surrounds or Rears to the Mains. Don't misunderstand, it's not a bad thing to do, but it is also far from necessary.

Do not have different Speakers on the two sides. That is just silly.

 

[jakkedtide]

If you are actually thinking about trying to turn a free-standing style Stand-mount Speaker into an "in-wall," I would advise very strongly against this.
Regular "box" Speakers are not designed for an infinite baffle installation, they are designed to be in free space.
You will alter, perhaps significantly, the performance of the Speaker.

If you must change the Speakers it sounds like shopping for a good in-wall would be your best bet. You do not need to match your Surrounds or Rears to the Mains. Don't misunderstand, it's not a bad thing to do, but it is also far from necessary.

Do not have different Speakers on the two sides. That is just silly.

So in wall seems the best. I think that will work good. Klipsch 160 Rpw I think is not bad