Speaker placement in a complex room

[newbster]

I'm trying to think out speaker placement in our family room. It has some complex shapes so I won't get anything near a sound room quality but that's not the goal. One thing I'm trying to also figure out is whether I should use "Presence" speakers mounted high in the four corners or think about ceiling mounts. If there isn't a huge quality difference, I would like to avoid ceiling mounts.
The area outlined in blue is open to the Library above. This is a 20ft ceiling. The other portion is 10ft. The stairs down area is open to the house. Mounting speakers back there is more challenging.


If I understand my options, there is one path of mounting "presence" speakers in four corners high or going with ceiling mounts. I'm trying to avoid ceiling mounts as anything more than a screw hole will probably mean retexturing the entire section. In addition to that, half the ceiling is open to the library above.



The screen is mounted in the turret circular area.

According to the 2070 manual, here is the ideal layout config. There are no ceiling mounted speaker sin this config unlike many others which show either two or four ceiling mounted speakers and no "presence" speakers.

 

[Montucky]

Not gonna lie. That room does NOT seem like a good candidate for any sort of height speakers. I could be wrong since I've seen some super creative solutions around here, but your room's difficulties take the cake. Have you thought about perhaps just skipping heights and possibly surrounds, and just focusing on a really good front sound stage? In a room like yours I would think about going 3.1 (or 3.2), and AT MOST doing a simple 5.1(or 5.2) setup, using wireless surrounds (if you can't easily wire up something by the couch), which has recently become much easier thanks to some of the new Yamaha and Denon receivers. Food for thought.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Super tough space. I’ll have to think a bunch more the be real creative but these might solve the height speaker(or other) placement issues.
http://www.jblpro.com/www/products/installed-sound/control-60-series

 

[newbster]

How "magical" is the YPAO mic at configuring things? I saw a few youtube vids where ATMOS is explained as object oriented and once configured they system calculates which sounds go where to the speakers in relative positions. The point being that in theory, placement does not matter as much as it gets figured in. I have no idea how valid this is.

You may well have a point on not even trying but that's why I'm asking the question before mounting the speakers.

 

[2channel lover]

I'm trying to think out speaker placement in our family room. It has some complex shapes so I won't get anything near a sound room quality but that's not the goal. One thing I'm trying to also figure out is whether I should use "Presence" speakers mounted high in the four corners or think about ceiling mounts. If there isn't a huge quality difference, I would like to avoid ceiling mounts.
The area outlined in blue is open to the Library above. This is a 20ft ceiling. The other portion is 10ft. The stairs down area is open to the house. Mounting speakers back there is more challenging.


If I understand my options, there is one path of mounting "presence" speakers in four corners high or going with ceiling mounts. I'm trying to avoid ceiling mounts as anything more than a screw hole will probably mean retexturing the entire section. In addition to that, half the ceiling is open to the library above.



The screen is mounted in the turret circular area.
View attachment 25691

According to the 2070 manual, here is the ideal layout config. There are no ceiling mounted speaker sin this config unlike many others which show either two or four ceiling mounted speakers and no "presence" speakers.

View attachment 25692

Maybe not as challenging as you might think...but you could be trying to accomplish more than what the space will allow.

Putting the screen in the circular area is kind of the start of the problem imo...the long wall opposite the bar seems to be the ideal screen wall for a LRC speakers layout...then put the surrounds on floor stands for a 5.1 or 7.1 config.

Regardless of where you put the screen...Atmos ceiling speakers are going to be a challenge.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

How "magical" is the YPAO mic at configuring things? I saw a few youtube vids where ATMOS is explained as object oriented and once configured they system calculates which sounds go where to the speakers in relative positions. The point being that in theory, placement does not matter as much as it gets figured in. I have no idea how valid this is.

You may well have a point on not even trying but that's why I'm asking the question before mounting the speakers.

Room correction systems have come a long way, however they’re only able to do so much. This will depend obviously on placement, as well as how capable the speakers are. Physics will always win lol, so I’m tough rooms we get as close as we can and ultimately have to live with any compromises.
So yes, placement does matter and always will but to an extent it can be helped.

 

[Montucky]

Super tough space. I’ll have to think a bunch more the be real creative but these might solve the height speaker(or other) placement issues.
http://www.jblpro.com/www/products/installed-sound/control-60-series

Interesting! I've actually never seen those before. That could be just the ticket for OP. Do you have any first hand experience with those?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Interesting! I've actually never seen those before. That could be just the ticket for OP. Do you have any first hand experience with those?

Unfortunately I don’t. They hit my radar when I was shopping for ceiling speakers. My ceiling slopes up from left to right at about 10deg. My ocd went crazy, but I chose 4 rsl C34e’s.
The control series has always been received well, so I would expect good performance.

 

[newbster]

So.. Should I just try following the Yamaha recommended layout as best I can and adjust from there? Any insight on "presence" speakers vs pretty much wrapping the room in speakers vs standard Atmos setup of adding 2 to 4 ceiling speakers? I'm trying to understand what my best option might be. I haven't setup much beyond the traditional 5.1 in the past so the nuances are still foggy.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

So.. Should I just try following the Yamaha recommended layout as best I can and adjust from there? Any insight on "presence" speakers vs pretty much wrapping the room in speakers vs standard Atmos setup of adding 2 to 4 ceiling speakers? I'm trying to understand what my best option might be. I haven't setup much beyond the traditional 5.1 in the past so the nuances are still foggy.

Can you lost a couple pics? Might be easier to see what’s going on that way.