Will Atmos speakers be effective if L/R surround and L/R rear are in-ceiling also?

[jeffcarp]

We're designing our new house and our main family room will be the home theater space. Room will be 23' x 20' with 12' high ceilings. The listening position will be about 12' from a 75" TV.

For L/R fronts I'm probably going with the Monoprice THX-365T THX speakers with the 365C for the center channel. I'd go with the 15" Monoprice Monolith THX sub.

I must put the L/R surrounds and L/R rears in-ceiling. I have no other option. There is no rear wall in the family room. It's an open floor plan to the kitchen.

For the surrounds and rears, I plan to use the RSL C34E speakers, aimed at the listening position.

I also had planned to add 2 more RSL speakers for Atmos and have a 7.1.2 setup.

Because I have to use in-ceiling speakers for the surrounds and rears, will the in-ceiling Atmos speakers loose their effectiveness and not be worth it? Is it too much?

Alternatively, the Monoprice 365T front L/R speakers have a separately connected, angled Atmos speaker in the top of the speaker. Should I just use that and forget about the 2 additional in-ceiling RSL C34E's?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

You are correct. Going for Atmos will be a waste of money, and be ineffective.
FWIW, I used c34e’s for my Top speakers and they are very nice. You’ll like them.
My sunken LR also has no right side wall except for the back of a bank of cabinets. So my solution was to build a column to mount the right surround on(and now in). It also houses a 3gang switch box for the kitchen/LR. This solution might not work for you, but maybe. Visual aid.

 

[Trebdp83]

Nice work on the column. It looks great, like it was always supposed to be there. That wood in the niches is sharp.

 

[jeffcarp]

Here is a screenshot showing the specifics of my situation. Doing any kind of speaker stands within the room is not going to happen with my wife.

I've also been given some advice that I should do 5.1.2 instead of 7.1 but everyone that I've talked to so far agrees that 7.1.2 is a waste of money and won't work.

 

[Trebdp83]

Can you hang two 265B surrounds on the wall and have 5.1.4? One on the other side of left entry wall and the other just left of the window? Or, is anything on the walls off the table?

 

[jeffcarp]

Can you hang two 265B surrounds on the wall and have 5.1.4? One on the other side of left entry wall and the other just left of the window? Or, is anything on the walls off the table?

Anything on the walls is out with the possible but doubtful exception of recessed with paintable grills.

I'm squarely in "best not-optimal option mode."

 

[jeffcarp]

Looking at this in more detail, there is a slight possibility of using in-wall speakers if they had a subtle paintable grill to the left of the window and on a small wall at the entry that also faces the window. This would be about 4 feet behind the listening position and between 7 and 9 feet outside those new position. Would those speakers need to be capable of being aimed? If anyone has a product suggestion that I could look at, that would be helpful.

 

[Trebdp83]

Here is an option from Monoprice, though they are not angled.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Nice work on the column. It looks great, like it was always supposed to be there. That wood in the niches is sharp.

Thanks! That was wood we saved from clearing this lot when we built our house. It is very very weathered from exposure.

Sorry if I’m over sharing lol.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Here is a screenshot showing the specifics of my situation. Doing any kind of speaker stands within the room is not going to happen with my wife.

I've also been given some advice that I should do 5.1.2 instead of 7.1 but everyone that I've talked to so far agrees that 7.1.2 is a waste of money and won't work.

View attachment 37326

I definitely agree 5.1.2 would be better than 7.1. BUT not if the surrounds are in the ceiling. Looking at your blueprints, I’m wondering what will be between the kitchen and the LR. Could you install a facade, or cabs or columns or something there to mount speakers? That might help the rear surround situation, but I can’t figure out the surrounds. Do have a horizontal elevation? Always helps me see better. But damn. That is a tough room!

 

[jeffcarp]

Here is where I think I can put one pair of surrounds on the wall to achieve 5.1.4. They will have to be in-wall and discrete. Since this is about 4' behind the listening position would this be a good application for the in-wall Definitive Technology DI 5.5BPS speakers because of the angles bipole design?