Rear Atmos speakers as surround (3.1.4 -> 5.1.2) ?

[LLL]

About me:

I am fairly new to serious audio hardware and audio set-up. I have a Denon AVR-X4700H coming and it does allow me to use 4 height speakers but I would like to comply to Dolby standards.

Background:

I live in a house with an open concept and my living room couch backs up into the kitchen/dining area. Problem is that my SO does not want any wires nor visible speakers to be placed behind the couch (No compromise). Last year I did put in 4 Atmos speakers; 2 behind the couch and 2 in front of the seating area (Show in the image bellow).

Question:

Can I use the 2 rear Atmos speakers as rear surround for a 5.1.2 configuration because Dolby does not support 3.1.4 set up as I currently have.

Note* It's not a question if I physically can/cant but more so a question will the rear Atmos speakers function as rear surround or just sound as height speakers.

If there is a different approach I can take in my situation I am open to comments and suggestions!

Thank you for your support,

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Just for point of clarification. “Rear surrounds” are used in a 7ch bed while in a 5ch they’re just referred to as surrounds. So...
While what you want to do will work the way you’re asking, it won’t provide a very good Atmos experience. The bed speakers need to be down around ear level. So imo, it would be 100% worth adding surrounds. My wife does not like all my gear in the LR either but imo it’s pretty tidy. And I pay the mortgage too!

 

[LLL]

Thank you William for your input. I figured there would be some compromise in experience. I wanted a confirmation I was not doing something that would negatively impact the overall sound quality (reverb or sync problems with my rear heights being surround).

 

[diskreet]

what's where you are standing? You could do an in wall surround next to that window, but only if you have a wall where this pic was taken from. If not, I highly recommend pushing for a speaker behind the couch they can agree to. The room looks great, but I don't think it would be significantly different with very small bookshelfs on a slim stand right behind that wood end table. That space isn't useful now so you're not really losing walking space.

I'm in the middle of a home reno right now. We removed the wall between our kitchen and living room, which removed the wall i was going to place my surround speaker in for that side. I worked with my wife to land on a speaker/stand she was comfortable seeing now that the wall was out.

If you can't make progress there, why not literally just try it the way you want. Tell the receiver you want 5.1.2 and connect those speakers appropriately. You are the only one that needs to like how it sounds.

 

[Tailspin70]

I'm facing a similar scenario. The house we moved to has a family room pre-wired with 5 ceiling speakers (three 2ft in front of TV (I assume for LRC) and two 10ft further back for SL/SR. Ceiling height is 8ft. I have my own L/R fronts and center speakers and use the back ceilings as my SL/SR and two of the three front ceilings as overhead presence speakers in a 5.1.2 config on my yamaha RX-V685 atmos receiver. Ideally I would have a 5.1.4 configuration where all four ceiling speakers are used for presence and have a dedicated SL/SR surround speakers at ear height but installing the surround speakers would be a pain and this would also require upgrading to a 9 channel receiver which are WAY more expensive. I'm finding it difficult to justify spending thousands to upgrade to a 5.1.4. Will it really be that much better than my 5.1.2 config using two back ceiling speakers as SL/SR?