Mixing upfiring and ceiling speakers!

L

Larold

Audiophyte
Over the past few months, I’ve sort of backed into my Atmos setup. I’ve got some Klipsch components with upfiring from the L/R and ceiling speakers do the surrounds and rear Atmos. It’s 5.2.4. My Marantz SR-7011 gives me the either/or option on the Atmos.
I set the system up for upfiring and it sound good but has anyone mixed these components together? I may do a test, setting the Atmos up for ceiling and see how that sounds. I’ve been a Recording Engineer for 50 years and I know what good audio sounds like but our living room isn’t purpose built for home theater. Any ideas? I don’t want to get into phase swapping and that whole mess...I just want the system to sound as good as possible with the Audessy setup and then I may tweak it a bit.
Thanks .
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
I've seen some diagrams that indicate you can mix modules and ceiling speakers for Atmos. I cannot speak towards the efficacy of that. I've always heard of Ceiling speakers being preferred opposed to the modules (since the angles need to be very dialed in to get the reflected sound in the right place).
Unless I'm misreading something, what would likely hurt the atmos effect is that you mention in-ceiling surrounds. Generally, I always see the quality of the the Atmos effect being tied directly to the bed layer of your 5- or 7-channel surround speakers. those are generally accepted to need to be in place according to Dolby standards for there to be enough separation between Surround and Atmos for the Atmos effect to work.
I am definitely not an Atmos expert and will defer to any of our friends with more experience there. :)
 
L

Larold

Audiophyte
You make a good point. My surrounds are indeed in the ceiling because otherwise, they would be within a foot of the people at the back couch. I think I just have to accept that my setup isn’t ideal, but needs a bit of testing and tweaking. Crossover points are key here. I need to experiment more with those. There are songs that I’m all too familiar with that have bass notes missing at various seating positions and I’m doing my best, but after all it’s not an acoustically perfect space. It sounds good, and I always strive for the best it can be. The journey is informative and fun....
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
If you are missing bass, then you should experiment with Sub placement in your room. The Subwoofer Crawl is great for helping find the naturally advantageous positions for acoustic performance. If you've been doing recording engineering, Im gonna go out on a limb and guess you understand a little about room modes and cancellations. Just a thought to help you even out the Bass response.
Beyond that, indeed, we all have to fight a little and make compromises in our rigs. Not even considering Spousal Approval Factor! :p
For you, I think spending some research time looking at the Dolby specs for surround and Atmos set up will help you answer some of the questions you have... but then, checkout the Crawling For Bass video here on AH... Working with your rooms acoustics rather than against them is the easiest, and likely least expensive, way to move that along! :D
Cheers!
 
L

Larold

Audiophyte
Crawling for bass! Lol. Thanks. Yeah ... there’s my future, right there.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
It probably took me an hour as I got used to hearing just bass, and how it sounded as I moved around the room. But once I started hearing the difference, say, of moving in and out of a corner... the rest was easy.The biggest thing I can add is just keep your mind open to placement options. The acoustics of your room don't lie. ;)
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Yep. You sure can mix modules with IC speakers. But as @ryanosuar mentioned the IC surrounds with IC top speakers will be a fail. If that’s what ya got, then that’s what ya got though. No way to do ear level surrounds?
 
L

Larold

Audiophyte
Not really. They would be right next to the people on our couch...against the back wall.
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
Not really. They would be right next to the people on our couch...against the back wall.
I’m not sure how you couldn’t have enough bass any pictures of your set up and what subwoofer your using ??
Ceiling speakers are going to be better for atmos then up firing speakers .
Both could work if you have a 11-14 channel receiver haha .
We’re is the 24 channels that we we’re supposed to get from ultra hd?


Ultimate bass lover !! si ht15 dvc.
Free the reptile aliens
 
L

Larold

Audiophyte
There is plenty of bass, it was just very “node-y”. Certain notes were missing in certain positions. I now have 2 Klipsch subs and that is helping a lot. As far as mixing upfiring and ceiling drivers, I am at peace with it. Sounds good and while not completely on spec, the low end is smoother and the “sitting in an audio bubble” effect is nice. I’m happy now. Thanks to everyone who advised me here.
 

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