Since the new dolby format will process a 5.1 signal for front presence speakers I was wondering what a good speaker for the job would be. Atlantic Technology has already designed one specifically for the job for around $400.

Link: http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/satellite/atlantic-tech-1400-sr-z-height

I bet the qs4 or qs8 would do a much better job that this speaker which only uses a midrange driver in phase or out of phase with the other. The article mentioned they designed this to be a diffusive speaker that wouldn't call attention to itself and blend in. The the qs's are very good at doing that and extending down flat to nearly 80 Hz and are about the same price. What do you guys think? Anyone try this idea?

- Nick

I agree Nick, I think the QS will be the perfect presence speaker and I think you could even get away with just the QS4 as even less material would run through it than surrounds.

Well, according to the CNET.com review of front height channels on the Onkyo, the front height speakers not only did not call attention to themselves, they could not even tell they were there. Like in, they could not tell a difference in sound when they were hooked up and not hooked up when using direct firing speakers (I believe). Not a good first report on PLIIz. Given the above report, I's think a direct firing M2 might be better. We won't have anyone else's real world testing for a while. I have let go of PLIIz as a 'hold out for' feature.

EDIT: I just went to the article. They do say radiant firing is preferred. This makes sense in theory... see sig. ;o) This whole front height channel thing has got some proving to do in my mind.

Nick, on a point of terminology, Yamaha refers to the feature that they've had for several years, adding artificial ambience, as "presence" speakers. The Dolby DPLIIz processing of material already naturally in the recording has been termed "height" since it extracts non-directional ambience material(rather than the left and right surround ambience which DPLII sends to side surrounds)which, when present, frequently comes from above.

Since this is non-directional material, wide dispersion speakers such as the QSs would appear to be ideal. Dolby has most frequently been suggesting this as an alternative for someone sitting almost up against the back wall without room for a "7.1 back" setup and instead assigning the unused back channels for a "7.1 height" system.