Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Question on ATMOS

I wish they would create a report on room sizes. for speaker placement and how many.
I have a room 11.5w x 15,5 L and 8 H
just wondering as currently I only have 5.2 with QS8.
However just seems I am missing that rear sound channels.
I am 10.5ft from front speakers and back wall is 4.6 ft
but, I got a rear entry door and it is 2 ft off the side wall.

Hi TroyD,

If you e-mail us a sketch of your room with the location of the seats, the TV, the doors, and any other odd things about your room we can send it back to you with our suggested speaker locations.

Thanks Ian.
I will do that.

Many die-hard Atmos people will say, "Get your base (bed) layer right first, then add overheads."
So a solid 5.1 (or 7.1) setup is required first. You should have that +/- and room acoustic or speaker placement issues.

Get the side surrounds down closer to ear level to offer greater separation from the overheads.

If going 7.1, actually push your side surrounds just slightly in front of the seating area. If staying 5.1, put them just slightly behind the seating area.

15.5' from front to back wall is not really lending itself to a change from 5.1 to 7.1, but it depends more on how close to your screen you are sitting. I had a 10' x 15' room for v3.0 of my theater, and 5.1 was plenty, but my seating was also against the back wall and looking at a 104" screen.

From there, you want to basically make a "box" around your seating area for the overheads with 2 speakers in front of and 2 speaker behind your listening area.

Here is Dolby's 5.1.4 recommendation.



Here is Dolby's 7.1.4 recommendation (which real world has shown could just a touch of modification, like side surrounds slightly in front of the listening area.


And here is a modified 9.1.2 layout that I did up based off of Anthony Grimani's recommendations (look him up if you wonder who he is). He really likes a 9.1 setup with just 2 overheads (9.1.2) over *most* 7.1.4 layouts, but again, your room isn't that deep at 15.5 feet, so you probably don't have the big gap from your main speakers to your surrounds. I added comments about how he suggests a 9.1.2 layout (in red) vs. Dolby's 9.1.2 layout diagram. He says surrounds no more than 1-2 feet above ear level, but in the video that I watched where I made my notes, he was talking about rooms with 10 foot ceilings, so lots of space between the side speakers and the overhead plane. That is why most will say to put them "just above" ear level for Atmos.


Now, I can go on and on about monopole speakers only, but if you went 9.1.2 for a layout, you could put the QS8s in the front wide spots and get a pair of overheads and a pair of new (monopole) surrounds. Keep this in mind though. There is no (ZERO) native Atmos content for a 9.1.2 layout, but you can upmix into it, and that works really well. You will end up upmixing everything you watch anyway (trust me).

But, if you want the maximum match up of speakers to native content, then you need to find a way to add 2 rear speakers, and 4 overheads and get to 7.1.4. Again, that all depends on your seating location, how much room you have behind that location for the rear surrounds (and overheads).

Don't leave out DTS:X either. Might as well plan for it. Basically, DTS:X, whiel super flexible, likes the overheads further away from the seating area than Atmos. Heck, it is allowable to have them up where your front and rear walls meet the ceiling, but that is outside Atmos spec.
If you look at the angle recommendations from Dolby for how far in front and behind your listening area to put your overheads, if you put them closer to (but not at) the further distance of their recommendations, you will be within Atmos spec AND hit a nice sweet spot for DTS:X content.

awesome
thanks Nick
My seat is 11' from the front and 4'6" from the back wall.
the front speakers M22 are 12" off the wall to their rears and almost 10' from listening to the fronts.
The door on the left rear is 16" off the side wall and is 32 " putting it at 4ft into the room. So it eliminates a speaker. It is only framed out so I could move it over towards the centre another 15" putting it off the wall 31". If I have on walls and used a FMB I could mount it at the 27" mark and angel it towards me. I think that gives me the angle of about 135 deg. Not sure haven't done the math.

heres a room layout best I can get

The diagram helps for sure. You definitely have room for 2 rear speakers.

You could experiment with 2 on-wall M2s and put them as the rear 2 speakers, then swap the QS8s to the rear and put the M2s on the side walls to see if you like one configuration over the other. You will still want to bump the side surrounds (QS8s or M2s) just in front of your "head" as it rests during normal viewing.

Then grab 4 speakers for your ceiling and never look back. You will have a great space for Atmos.

I am a HUGE fan of room treatments. If you don't have them already, you will really love your room afterwards.

Another option for basstraps is to use 4" OC703 material mounted in a frame like if it was going to go on a wall, but straddle the corner. You will have 4" of great material, plus a nice air gap back to the corner which works almost as well as if you stuffed the corner completely full of insulation, but at a fraction of the cost. Of course you will need more than 1 piece of OC703 (theoretically two pieces per corner to get your 8 foot height to your ceiling).

Not sure if it is cheaper/easier than other options you might be looking at, but it does perform well... very well.

If you decide that you want to do something artistic with your wall panels, let me know. I am sort of the "go to" guy over at AVS for custom printed fabric DIY panels.

You will have a more theatre - like experience by placing the fronts on the long wall. The musical soundstage will also sound more expansive. I suggest you replace your centre with the 160.

Oops the VP150 is VP160
No, that ain't going to happen too much work done this way. I have no issues with sound stage now at all. I'm just trying to figure out if there was enough space behind to make it 7.2 or 7.2.4.
Also, where to put the speakers. I got the rear entrance door and it may need to be moved to accommodate the left rear speaker.

Nick those yellow spots are sound panels. Also, we cannot get OC703 here in Canada. which is why I was going with the bats or sound proofing for corner traps. $60 for each corner, plus the would to build. I am thinking I can do eac trap 6ft high for $80 each. I am just going with the foam bass traps for along the ceiling and wall.

as for side surrounds I cannot go ahead I have to be 90 deg or just behind. Forgot to mention on the right side is a window about 5ft long starts about 5 ft from front wall.

"No, that ain't going to happen too much work done this way. I have no issues with sound stage now at all."

Then better not do what I suggested because you'll be ripping your room apart once you've heard it.