Atmos ceiling speaker thread exist?

This is an excellent thought and something I have been wondering myself. Hence the excellent thought....


Me and my wife have been debating buying a bigger home due to our new baby girl and the boys getting older. This was a perfect time to see if I can find a large bonus room or large loft for a dedicated home theater and music listening room/area. Along with more bedrooms for the kids of course..
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I've been wanting to go with a projector and possibly going dual subs. Also thinking of adding Atmos setup if we do decide to get the bigger home.

For those that have it is Atmos really that much of a difference maker? I'm assuming not as much as a reference subwoofer or great left and right speaker.

I've heard other members talk about the lack of bass or punch with Atmos compared to DTS HD Master audio for instance.

What are you're thoughts?





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I have two atmos setups but only with two ceiling speakers in our house. However my theater does not have atmos setup. The kids TV room has 5.2.2 and our bedroom has 5.2.2. For the kids setup we have kef 3005 for all 5 speakers and two in ceiling 6" klipsch mid level speakers. They sound pretty good and cost $100 each. Speakers woofefrs 15 degree angle with a tweeter that can be aimed at LP. We put them in klipsch back boxes so I cant say how they sound IB. In our bedroom because I didnt feel like putting holes in the ceiling and getting showered with blown insulation I did SVS prime elevation speakers about 400 for the pair. Rest of the speakers are jbl lsr305. So both setups are very inexpensive for atmos and I will say it does add a cool effect. Watching non atmos content they get small bits of sound here and there.

Things to consider and I have been going back and forth for a few weeks now as to what direction to go in. Dolby says your atmos speakers should have same power handling and sound as your other speakers. My pro installer friend who does many high end home setups says you should have all matching speaker in your setup to get the best sound envelopment. If you have paradigm surrounds you should use paradigm in ceilings. Another big thing he notes and others have discussed is to have your atmos speakers pointed at your LP thus having them at a 45 degree angle ideally. A traditional down firing ceiling speaker will cause you to be pretty far off axis and your higher end HZ range will be drastically down in db causing the sound to be rather different from what is intended and missing that sparkle. Very few in ceiling speakers have a 45 degree angle and the ones that do are not cheap so to speak. Triad makes a few that are not ideal for old work and the boxes are large. Klipsch makes a horned speaker thats a normal in ceiling but its a 90x90 patter which is also not idea for atmos. Paradigm and Elac make a 30 degree angled speaker with a dome tweeter so you could compensate ceiling placement a tad to help get more on axis with that angle. At best your run of the mill ceiling speaker is 15 degrees and lots of people use the RSL speakers for some reason in those scenarios and dont use RSL speakers otherwise.

So a few question you would need to answer

1. Will my atmos speakers match my existing speakers or do you not care? For me I think not.
2. Can I get my atmos speaker to be on axis correctly or do I not care (this one I think is important as it will drastically change how the speaker sounds and ideally make the listening experiencing better so I would say, Yes
3. How much to spend on speakers and can I get ones with similar power handling/out to my bed layer. Mixed bag here not sure?
4. Is the upgrade to available content ratio worth the expense and time? ( this one I think, Yes. atmos is "fun" and give you another dimension in your movie experience. More and more movies and shows are in atmos and I dont see this being a fad so I feel its worth while.

For people with DIY speakers there is no real great option unless you make all identical speakers. NO real timber matching exists.


Secondary thoughts. Can your ears really tell a difference in timber matching for surrounds? I use 1099s for my lcr and klipsch bipoles for surrounds and when things pan they sound fine. I dont say "oh thats weird". Generally speaking you also want all normal front firing speaker for your bed layer. Unless your like me and sit less than 6' from a surround speaker which then using a bipole is better.

I think for myself I will most likely end up either one of two directions. 1. building coaxial DIY speakers and make a 45 degree angled box and mounting it to the ceiling.
Or getting some klipsch in ceilings 8" ones and building a back box for them and call it a day. For a 5.12.4 setup. I dont use rear surrounds cause I think they have no real content. I use front heights at the moment and would add those with atmos if I could find a receiver that would accommodate it.