Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Lets plan a theater space

Anyone have any thoughts on doing all 4 surrounds in ceiling rather than on wall?

What "channels" are you referring to as surrounds. The in-ceilings in this build are height channels.

Are you referring to side/rear surrounds?

I work with a guy that went with in-ceiling speakers when he built his house. He went with over-priced product that the local "audio/video experts" priced up and installed. Honestly, it sounds bad. I know that surround speakers don't need to be amazing speakers to be effective, but yes, you can tell that the sound is above you and not around you.

Interesting. I was considering the in ceiling for a 7.1 dedicated home theater. Front and center on wall and the 4 surrounds in ceiling. I was considering the for asthetics. Sounds like it might not be worth it if the sound quality will be that poor.

I only have experience with one setup with the 3 main channels in ceiling. It was spec audio in an upscale home. As Nick said, not good.

If you go the route you are contemplating you will at least have height channels pre-installed for later. In-walls are way better for the hidden 7.1 setup you are thinking of. (If you are surrounded by walls at least.)

With the new ATMOS/DTS:X formats about to become default codecs, and legacy decoders being the fallback, base layer surrounds are definitely priority over only height surrounds.

Yeah, go in-wall if you need to hide them. Heck, I can even get you in touch with someone who knows how to cover the in-walls with custom printed fabric panels that will let the sound through, but hid even the in-wall speaker grills. (That would be me, by the way. LOL)

I second Atmos...
If I was starting over I'd start with 5.1.4 with 2 subs.

I am not that familiar with the Atmos. I currently own Axiom Grand Master 7.1 on wall that I have from a theater room in a home I have since moved from. I am building my new space. I have yet to purchase a receiver. Based on some of the things I wanted to do in term of columns, sconces and movie posters on the walls I wanted to get rid of the QS8's in favor of something I could put in ceiling. The 3 front speakers would remain on wall...

What will the Atmos do for me? What components do I need?

PS the aspicer1 from above is me I just made a new profile a while back and had forgotten the user name.

There are many places to go to research ATMOS. I wont repeat the whole story here but here is the readers digest version.

To use ATMOS you need to add height (and optionally wide) channels. This is accomplished by using atmos enabled speakers, atmos modules or in ceiling speakers. In ceilings are the best option.

You also need an ATMOS processor. There are currently many AVRs offered with this feature. They are still very expensive, and having sampled an upper tier model personally, are not worth the current asking price.

ATMOS is the first of the object based immersive sound formats. They will soon be the standard soundtrack on bluray titles. The other current formats are AURO and DTS:X. DTS:X is not slated for launch until March, when more details will be available.

I have experienced ATMOS, along with others here and can say without hesitation that even on non-atmos content it is a worthwhile technology.

Whether or not the added cost of more speakers and amp channels to drive them (new avr/processor) is up to you.

You need basically 4 speakers for the ceiling (2 is the minimum), and a good $2500-$3000 for the receiver or receiver/amp combination to power all 11 speakers (7.1.4 setup).

It gains you what is called "object based" audio where they can literally place a sound almost anywhere in a room, not just from a speaker location, but anywhere. Think back to the days (if you are that old) where people with 2 speakers for audio could create a "phantom" center channel by playing sounds "just right" to make it seem like there was a 3rd speaker for a center channel and still have clear left and right channels. Take that idea, and use a "dome" of speakers, and you can get "phantom" objects able to be placed anywhere in the room. It isn't "phantom" imaging of audio, but that is the best way that I know how to describe it to someone who hasn't experienced it.

At CEDIA I heard a demo from Star Trek: Into Darkness (actually heard it many times) where the "natives" on the planet at the beginning are throwing spears. There is one point where a spear is thrown almost right at the center of the screen. If you listen carefully in an Atmos room, that spear could be hear behind the screen, through the screen, several feet in front of you, and then BAM, right "through" you. It was very impressive. Instead of just sound whizzing from the front speakers around you on the left or right, they could sound like they were right next to you, or above you, and it was much more immersive.

For me, it is absolutely worth it, however I am waiting for DTS:X to be spec'd out and for receivers to come down a little in price. I've already changed my current 7.1 speaker configuration to prepare for Atmos, but will probably hold off at least 1 year just to get the cost closer to where I want it to be, and for the technology in the receivers to be even more refined.