Need help with 5.1.4 Atmos placement in a small room (Marantz Cinema 40)

[BertoM3]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently upgrading my Home Cinema setup from 5.1.2 to 5.1.4. My bed layer consists of SVS speakers, and for the 4 height/Atmos channels, I’m using Cambridge Audio Minx 22s.

My room is quite small: I sit less than 2 meters away from the TV, and the back wall is right behind the sofa. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the different naming conventions and placement options: Front Height, Top Front, Dolby Front, etc.

My main question is: Where should I physically place them and how should I label them in my AVR settings to get a "true" Atmos experience?

Here is my current layout:

• Fronts (L-C-R): They are placed slightly forward, ahead of the TV line.
• Surrounds: They are about 30cm behind my seating position, so they aren't strictly "Rear Surrounds."

My initial idea was:

1. Fronts: Set them as "Front Height" (mounted on the front wall, near the ceiling).
2. Rears: Set them as "Top Rear" (mounted on the ceiling, as close to the back wall as possible, roughly in line with the surrounds).

However, after watching several videos, I'm more confused than ever. It seems the front Atmos speakers should be between 30° and 55° from my listening position, rather than on the front wall. But when I look at the angles, I run into these issues:

• Option C (Diagram): The "ideal" manual placement. But they feel too close to my head and too close to the rear heights.
• Option B (Diagram): They end up directly above my front SVS speakers. I’ve heard this is a bad idea for sound separation.
• Option A (Diagram): If I move them further away (closer to the TV), they end up behind the front speakers line. People say this might ruin the Atmos effect.

I’ve attached a diagram of my setup.

1-->Front speaker line
2-->Surrounds
3-->Top Rear or Rear Height?
Any advice or clarification on where to mount them and how to name them in the Marantz settings would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Wardog555]

Been asked constantly and same answer applies every time. Follow the angles.

Too close to back wall and this is the result.

 

[mono-bloc]

My main question is: Where should I physically place them

The answer is quite simple. Dump all those shi**y little speakers in the garbage, where they belong, and buy yourself a decent
pair of real speakers. and sit back and enjoy.

 

[lovinthehd]

The answer is quite simple. Dump all those shi**y little speakers in the garbage, where they belong, and buy yourself a decent
pair of real speakers. and sit back and enjoy.

LOL what is your recommendation for those "real" speakers?

 

[Eppie]

@BertoM3 Sometimes more is not better. If speakers are placed too close to each other, they begin to interfere with each other. For example, if the front speakers are only 6 ft (2m) apart, it can be better to not use a centre channel speaker and use a "phantom centre" with a 2 speaker setup.

My room is not very deep either. I tried using flat panel speakers for rears along with bookshelves for side surrounds. The rears made things worse, so I am just using the side surrounds like you have currently (2). For ATMOS I went with just 2 speakers in the ceiling slightly in front of my seating position. That corresponded to the top-middle position on my AVR speaker settings and is what I would recommend for your room (C). You do not have space for proper top-rear speakers (3).

You also need to take into account what your AVR supports. Look at what speaker options are available in the speaker settings. You might find the AVR only supports the top (ceiling) speakers in certain positions. That info will be in the manual and the speaker setup menu. My AVR will support the use of both top-middle along with front-height (top of the front wall) (A) but I would only recommend adding front-height speakers if you have 8 foot ceilings or higher. If you also have a low ceiling then the addition of height speakers will likely do little to improve things. Smaller rooms should be kept simple. Better to go with fewer high quality speakers than a lot of cheaper speakers.

If you have SVS for the bed layer, the SVS height speakers would be much better than the Cambridge. The one advantage with height speakers is that some AVRs will support Auro3D with them.