Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Home Theatre Atmos Advice

We are going to be doing some work on the house and I’m thinking of upgrading the current theater setup.

The house came with Bose front height speakers and in-wall rears. I’m not a fan of the location of the rears.
I’m currently using circa 2007 M60s up front and also imploying them as a virtual center along with an EP500 from the same year.
For reference current display is 65 inches.

I have a Marantz 6012 and am looking to do a 7.1.4 Atmos setup. I’m going to be moving the M60s out for more casual listening in the lounge and bring in my Active LFRs for duty up front. I also have a monoprice 7 channel amp so only need the Marantz for processing.

Other items I have which I’m not currently using are a pair of on-wall M3s and an on-wall VP150.

Room dimensions as follows:
Wall with the display is 16’6”
Back wall is 13’3”
Wall with fireplace 16’6”
Current back left half-wall to bar 5’6”
Ceiling is flat and a height of 14’

I’ve taken three photos. (hoping the links show up correctly.) Most important call out is that I am planning on removing all the facade around the fireplace (everything currently painted white) to leave just the black fireplace opening and potentially add a wooden beam mantle if I leave the room in it’s current orientation.

I could change to room orientation and place the display above the fireplace and not put in a mantle but this would may make the cable routing a bit more challenging and I’m not sure how I’d get in a left rear speaker.

If anyone thinks I should flip the rotation let me know how you think that could work.

With current layout I’m looking at getting a 75 inch display mounted (floating) on the wall, a little higher than current location giving me the option to mount an on-wall center. I’d also be looking to have the front left moved wider for more separation. As mentioned, these would be Active LFRs. For the center I could reuse the on-wall VP150 but I was never a huge fan of it and thinking of trading it in for an on-wall VP180 to complement the Actives. Mojo, you may well say it’s not needed with the Actives doing virtual center duty. Looking to understand all options on the center.

Speaking of Mojo, my first thought was M2s for all other speakers based on your glowing reviews and either trading in my M3ows or using them in another room.

I had the in-ceiling M3s in my previous house and wasn’t floored by them.

For the front ceiling speakers I’m thinking regular white M2s on FMB which will make them blend in at 14’ and so I can position them toward the MLP.

For the back ceiling speakers I could do the same and put them right up against where the back wall meets the ceiling and angle them toward the MLP or mount on-wall M2s just behind the MLP which may look a little cleaner but you’d lose a little bit of direction.

I just have enough space to get side surrounds to line up by placing the left as far forward as possible on the bar wall and once the facade is removed around the fireplace, the right just off the window. Again I’m thinking this as an on-wall speaker and leaning toward the M2 again but would like to know if the side surround would benefit being an M5?

Lastly, the rears are having me scratch my head over the following thoughts:
Do I mount M2 on-walls with the back right mounted lower than the current in-wall and the back left also lower but flush up against the wall lip close to inline with the front left.
Do I use wedges and try to angle them a bit (not sure how much angle I’d get) toward the MLP from the same positions?
Do I use FMB with regular M2s and angle them toward the MLP?
Does anyone see any other options on the back speaker locations?

Any thoughts/opinions/suggestions would be most welcome.

Much appreciated!

[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/r24hxo3nt9va8r6/DF4C6315-7616-48E0-8233-E342E9ACD5BA.jpeg?dl=0[/img]
[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/xq3ets7ljfwm4hv/32FE02B9-6C42-4B9B-8FD4-86013AFFCF52.jpeg?dl=0[/img][img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zbznzqw8uu2afz/1123137A-26C3-4F39-BDF7-46B023DDBF3C.jpeg?dl=0[/img]

1. A virtual centre is the way to go if you only care about the MLP. Otherwise, VP160HP. When you're watching alone, go virtual.

2. M2 will sound thin in that room. I'd go M5 all around and up top. I don't have experience with ceiling mounting so I can't make a recommendation. FMBs sound plausible.

3. Keep the room orientation as is so as not to block the windows.

4. As for the sides and rears, what a treat to have such tall ceilings! I would experiment with the sides and rears at various heights up the walls. If "too high" up, consider upside-down mounting so that tweeters are pointing to the floor.

I take back what I said about trying the sides and rears higher up. That is bound to mess up their response. How do the current rears sound?

Go big or go home

Thanks for the input Mojo.

EIGHT M5s is not something I had considered! Here I was thinking you’d be advocating for the M2s but you make a good point in that the room volume is not typical.

The only location I was thinking about the possibility of M5s was for the side surrounds. With the rears being fairly close to the MLP I figured M2s would be okay there and I don’t think I’ve seen M5s ever being used on the ceiling before…

I’m only going to get one shot at this so would like to do it as best I can. This would also increase the budget pretty significantly .

Inverting the side/rear speakers in the M5 configuration also makes sense and I’d probably look at that route if I go in that direction.

Does anyone have any experience with M5s on a high ceiling along with rear M5s fairly close to the MLP?

They give a airy presence but you don’t get much location from them. I feel they are too high and the rear left is also misplaced.

I have the in-ceiling speakers and they sound great. I only have 9' ceilings but adding an amp would help if they didn't have sufficient sound at 14'.

I suspected the rears may not have been doing a good job. Maybe they need to be placed closer in rather than close to the side-walls. The other challenge is that multi-driver speakers require distance in order to blend properly. Maybe they should be placed higher up and angled down. That will reduce their bass response and that's where an M5 will shine over an M2.

The M5s on the ceiling will blend well given their distance.

As for the cost, it's a whole lot of speakers so work Axiom over for a deal.

Appreciate the input.

I had the in-ceilings in my previous house and thought they were missing something for me. I’m thinking either regular bookshelf angled toward the MLP or on-wall (ceiling) would work better at 14’

I don’t think this changes things too much but my wife had someone come over today regarding the overall remodel and when they went over the media room she recommended flipping the room 180 and having the display on what is currently the back wall. This would actually make the room flow better with the rest of the house.

The biggest compromise sound wise would be the new right surround which would now be just to the left of the light switch on the end of the wall behind the bar. It would need to be placed a bit higher than ideal to ensure minimal interference from the bar counter top in front of it. Makes me ask the question if flipping the speaker as Mojo suggested, to get the tweeter closer to ear height, might work or if it would mess up their response?

Speaking of orientation, if I had the rears closer together, a little higher up the back wall (say at 7’ or 8’) and angled down, it would seem that regular bookshelves mounted horizontally would work best to get a clean angle down. I’d think tweeters on the inside. But would that also mess up their response and should those rather be vertically mounted?

Same goes for the front ceiling mounting orientation. Would it be okay to mount the front highs horizontally, tweeters to the inside, angled toward the MLP or would it be best to mount them vertically?

Same goes for rear ceilings or though you could potentially use on-walls flush mounted straight down just behind the MLP but I’m kind of thinking the bookshelves would give most flexibility on dialing in the correct angle. Although at 14’ it’s not like I’m going to be changing the angles much post initial install.

So much to consider.

And I know the good folk at Axiom will certainly give me a good deal.

Tweeters should always face out for the widest possible image. These speakers aren't designed for horizontal mounting. Yes, the response would be messed up but it's unknown how much difference that orientation would make for sides, rears and heights.