I can't lower the QS8's, as they would just get walked into, but I "may" have room to wall mount some Axiom wall mount speakers for side surrounds. They would not be as obtrusive. Not ideal, but better I think. As you can see from the pictures though, one would have to forward to the seating area. Would that be an issue? I can mount the left rear surround to the corner base trap, if being angled doesn't matter?
Hey Nick, do you have any pictures of the ceiling-mounted M3's?
Do you think they are a better choice than the round ceiling speakers mounted in an encloser of sorts?
I'll dig up some photos.
If you can't lower the surround speakers, then you won't get the layer separation needed for Atmos to be effective. I switched from QS8s to on-wall M3s for surround duty and they are still thick, but not as thick as the QS8s were.
For me, again, I didn't want to cut holes and try to put backer boxes into my ceiling in hopes that it is good enough (our master bedroom is right above the theater), but the bigger challenge is that I also used whisper clips and hat channel that ran inbetween my ceiling joists, effectively cutting the space for in-ceiling speakers to go by 1/2, plus they weren't always dead center of the ceiling joists as there was some "lackluster" construction precision when the house was built, so they weren't even and I wanted my hat channel to be perfectly spaced. So there was no chance of getting holes cut, where I needed them for Atmos, without hitting something, and without compromising the integrity of the soundproofing.
If I was building from scratch "post Atmos" (since I built the room pre-Atmos) I would go in-ceiling speakers with really heavy duty backer boxes for a super clean look. Couldn't do that, so I mounted them on the ceiling and actually get better sound, at the cost of looks...
UPDATE. Let's see if these photos work.
This next one I took with the intention of showing that from standing in the row on my 13" riser and with the camera about 6.5 feet above that, you can see over the front overhead speakers. That is a limit of the Axiom FMBs. These could be more flush with the ceiling if I used wood wedges in the front like I did the back, but the FMBs allowed me to tweak and adjust the front angle a bit during installation.
For those with keen eyes, these were taken at different points in time, but the angles should be current. These photos were not taken today.
