Hey there! I was hoping to get some opinions on speaker choice and placement. I've attached some pictures of the room, figured that would be easiest. Some info:
-The room is 18-19' long, and 14' from the RH wall to the bar, 7.5' tall from floor to drop ceiling. (And from bar to the bar mirror/wall is another 4-5 feet wide, I forget off the top of my head). The door at the front left of the room is the stairs to go upstairs, and the door has to be able to open/close. So, centering the tv/front speakers in the room isn't ideal for my uses- but since the L shaped couch is against the right wall, the tv and speakers are centered to the listening positions (3 front-facing seats), for what that matters
-Have gone with the Klipsch RP series (8000f and 504C)
- The rear wall has speakers up in the corners in the pictures, but those will come down (previous owner left them).
-Listening position is roughly 5' from the rear wall. Would like a little further from the back wall, but then the other leg of the couch gets a little close to the front speaker. (the front speakers aren't placed exactly where they will go, but the front right is close ish to where it will be). Speaking of- does the couch being that close to the front speaker negatively affect things?
What I was hoping for help with:
1) Is this setup more suited to 5.1.x, or 7.1.x? The side surrounds will go as: Right surround on the right wall, basically in line with the back of the couch (Since the couch corner is curved). Left surround, will probably go on the bar. Basically my thought is to make some type of bracket that will allow me to move the left surround up and down- it will sit basically on top of the bar where the tiny lamp is when in use for HT (about a foot above ear height), and then it will be able to slide up to the ceiling out of the way, for when the bar is in use by clumsy drunks. And then if 7.1.x is do-able, the rears would go on the back wall obviously
2) Any recommendations for surrounds? The side surrounds, I am thinking of going with the bi-pole speakers (RP-502S). I know especially for atmos, bookshelves seem to be preferred, but someone made a good point of the positioning being a bit close for a tweeter to be pointed right at your ear, maybe? For rear surrounds, Klipsch actually recommended me to use the bipoles back there too. But initially I was thinking of doing in-walls to get them a bit farther from me, and just for day-to-day convenience of not having to watch for bumping into them when I'm behind the couch. Any thoughts on this? I've never seen someone use bipoles for all 4 surrounds, from my browsing on here and on youtube, so was surprised that's what their guy recommended
3) Recommendations for atmos? If I go with 4 ceiling speakers, the rears would be ~2.5 feet behind me, so ~2.5 feet from the back wall. Is that alright, or is sticking with 2 better in this case? As well, my options from Klipsch seem to be CDT-5800 ii or the PRO-180RPC. The Pro is apparently what matches the reference premiere series, but doesn't tilt at all. The CDT is able to tilt the woofer a bit, and the tweeter is aimable as well. Is being able to aim the tweeter important, or would I be ok since I'd be at/less than a 45 degree angle to the speakers anyway?
Sorry for the all the questions, and I'm sure I'm overthinking it for all the difference it'll make to my ears. But I hoped to get some input, if someone could. Thanks!
