Speakers Placement Help

A

apolloNail1518

Enthusiast
I am building a home theater system for my new home. Currently, I have a set of B&W floor standing 700 series. I was looking to add a center speakers and some surround speakers making it a 9.1 setup for Atmos. The room I'm creating my theater in is a 20ftx14ft. My projector screen placement will be on the 14ft feet wall and of course my front, left, and center speaker will be place at the 14ft wall too. I went into Magnolia Hi-Fi today and the gentleman that helped me, suggested I get all my surround speakers be in ceiling speakers. I'm little confuse because I've heard people say it's not ideal to have surround speakers mounted on the ceiling. He said ceiling speakers are the best way to go. What are your guys opinion on having ceiling speakers? Thank you!
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Well imo he has an agenda that I can’t figure out. You are correct in that IC are not preferred for surround duty, but they can be used if there’s no other choice. Imo it’s not as good, but surely better than no surround.
Now you mentioned Atmos, and that will definitely not work. Atmos needs vertical separation between the bed and height layer. Therefore all in ceiling will NOT work. I would personally try to find some more B&W’s(provided you like the ones you have of course) to match the ones you have. This will help to create more of a seamless surround experience.
It’s unfortunate you had to deal with that guy. He should have better training so maybe it’s not his fault totally. I still wanna slap him...

Edit: did he say why he felt that way?
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
Surrounds should be above ear level foot or so. As for ATMOS, they need to be mounted on or in ceiling.
 
A

apolloNail1518

Enthusiast
Well imo he has an agenda that I can’t figure out. You are correct in that IC are not preferred for surround duty, but they can be used if there’s no other choice. Imo it’s not as good, but surely better than no surround.
Now you mentioned Atmos, and that will definitely not work. Atmos needs vertical separation between the bed and height layer. Therefore all in ceiling will NOT work. I would personally try to find some more B&W’s(provided you like the ones you have of course) to match the ones you have. This will help to create more of a seamless surround experience.
It’s unfortunate you had to deal with that guy. He should have better training so maybe it’s not his fault totally. I still wanna slap him...

Edit: did he say why he felt that way?
Thank you for your input William! It's funny he told me he had 25 years experience and have a 35k system at home. I asked him a few time why do I see most speakers system online are wall mounted or floor standing? His respond was "why are you doubting me? I have a 35k system at home." I love my B&W. Do you know what are some good surround speakers that would work with it?

He did say why he think all surrounding speakers should be IC. He said cause when you hear rain drops its coming from atop not sideway. lol
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Wow... pretty sure I hear rain landing on the ground and things around me. No? Pretty sure bullets and cars and fire and things don’t come from above either. 35k on a system with poor placement? More money and pride than brains! I digress...
Sorry I can’t really give recommendations as I’m not super familiar with B&W’s lines but there are more than a few guys here that are. Shouldn’t be long until someone chimes in. I would look for a speaker from the same line. Bookshelf’s from the same line as the towers usually work well, but many speakers from a manufacturer can be voiced similarly. IMO it’s worth it to match as long as you have a budget to do so. I’ll leave you’re other thread alone...:wink: lol
 
DD66000

DD66000

Senior Audioholic
On wall or in-wall surround speakers should be placed according to the distance from the center seat to those walls.
I set up my on-wall speakers on a 15* angle above my seated ear level. With the 15* angle hitting the point between the tweeter and midrange.
And then your ATMOS speakers in-ceiling or on-ceiling.
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
I am building a home theater system for my new home. Currently, I have a set of B&W floor standing 700 series. I was looking to add a center speakers and some surround speakers making it a 9.1 setup for Atmos. The room I'm creating my theater in is a 20ftx14ft. My projector screen placement will be on the 14ft feet wall and of course my front, left, and center speaker will be place at the 14ft wall too. I went into Magnolia Hi-Fi today and the gentleman that helped me, suggested I get all my surround speakers be in ceiling speakers. I'm little confuse because I've heard people say it's not ideal to have surround speakers mounted on the ceiling. He said ceiling speakers are the best way to go. What are your guys opinion on having ceiling speakers? Thank you!
I've heard some decent sounding all IW with IC surround systems, but IC speakers in most applications would not be ideal for surround duty. I wouldn't go that route for a dedicated HT room.

For the atmos, you have two options, upfiring speakers that sit atop other speakers or IC speakers...I demoed both (Klipsch upfiring) and Polk IC) before buying IC...while both were effective in store demos, the IC room just seemed more lifelike to me. I would actually recommend them for Atmos duty assuming you have ceiling access and the ceiling is not much more than 9' high. That said, I wouldn't go tearing out ceiling and major drywall repair just to put in 4 Atmos speakers.

CC, and your surrounds...the new 700 series is fairly new on the market so I'm sure you can find a B&W center to match up with your floor standers.

The surrounds...I wouldn't spend B&W type money on surrounds, but I wouldn't get the cheapest speaker I could find either...wouldn't worry too much about matching the fronts.
 

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