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.

yeh and sitting any closer the the tv would be too close

Hi Troy,

You are getting some great advice here on how to get the most from your system. My 2 cents about the acoustic damping involves some experimenting. The front and rear acoustical panels are almost for sure going to be a good thing. With the side panels I would suggest some experimenting as damping the first reflections can be a step backwards. This said, every room is a new experiment and you will want to make your decision based on the empirical results. I would suggest starting with no side wall acoustical panels and then try one set in each of your locations. From there add the second set locations and then the third.

Darn did the math and that puts the rear speakers 16 " from the corners for the 135 deg. and if I go any higher that puts it right in the middle of the door. I am going to look at maybe moving the doorway. towards the middle more and see if I can get 24" off the wall. If not then will go 5.2.4.

Well, got some 2 x 4 looks like I can move the door over another 18" . I think I can then get a speaker 24" off the side walls. puts it closer to the 150 deg.
That gives me 95" between the two rear speakers.

Actually that is perfect. Puts the rears in line with the front which I just measured 24" off the side walls and 95" between

Nice!

Just wondering if maybe 5.2.4 would be just as good give the smaller room size.
or would the effects etc be better with the 7.4

I know this is only my experience but I will share my impressions. I don't have atmos yet but in my last house my living room/theater was 12ft wide and backed on to the dining room so I had the back speakers hanging from the ceiling for 7.1. I had many iterations of speakers in that house and for me front heights did way more for the enjoyment factor than the rear surrounds ever did. I now have a new house with a basement room that is 15x15 so I went 5.2 with QS8's which are about4 inches from the hanging ceiling and couldn't be happier. Room treatments are the biggest improvement you will make by far, rather than more speakers imho. I have not heard atmos but I always want the latest and greatest but I am really waffling since what I have now works so well. I really think 5.4 will be more than enough, really 5.2.2 should be more than adequate in a room that size.

Richard

5.2.4 is still a solid option. It was just when I saw that your seats were a decent distance from the rear wall, and that a pair of rear surrounds was possible that I mentioned that option.


If going 5.2.4, then you are good with having the (side) surrounds just slightly behind the listening area too.

For the ceiling speakers, are most people here using in wall or on wall speakers?
If so, is there a way to angle the driver , or does the whole unit need to be angled? I know that ceiling speakers have amiable drivers, not sure about the options for an in wall or on wall.

speakers already have a dispersion pattern but for Atmos a lot depends on your ceiling height. For 9ft ceilings like mine you don't need as much angle if any. The in ceiling m3s have an adjustable tweeter. Other people have angled on wall speakers if they have lower ceilings.

Yeah, I have on-wall M3 speakers that I am using for Atmos. My ceiling is a few inches under 8feet, so I needed to angle each entire speaker.

If I was starting from the construction phase, I would have planned for in-ceiling speakers instead for a cleaner look since the in-ceiling M3s have aimable tweeters. Since my room is soundproofed, I would have had to cut 4 large holes into my soundproofed ceiling, and besides compromising the soundproof structure, I also would have never found 4 good locations for speakers that wouldn't hit some ceiling joist or drywall decoupling hat-channel.

So that mean something below my ceiling, and with a ceiling under 8 feet, I had to be able to aim the whole thing.

Well, ok got it figured out.
I am upgrading the M22 to the M5HP
I have the VP160 coming on Layaway currently.
I will be upgrading the EP350 to a second EP500. Have a EP500 on layaway now, hoping to be paid off March.
For now I will be using QS8 in a 5.2 setup.
I currently have a AVM30, this will get upgraded to the Anthem AVM60 next year. I have a MCA50 now which will run the surrounds. Those will be On Wall M3's. I will pick up a MCA5 for ATMOS speakers, These I decided on four normal M3's which will be angled towards me. I will be making the ceiling with recessed locations so they will be pretty flush.
As the MCA's are 285w per this is way more than I need.
I will be picking up a MCA20 to run the from L/R , the centre I will run off the MCA50 centre channel. The MCA's have a dual Toridal transformers. The rear left right and centre run off one and the L/R are on the other. If used in a 5 channel system.
I will also have my dual EP500's.
I am going with the M3 as the M5HP OW are only 5db lower in frequencies, nothing really noticeable and will save $1500.

As you know my room is only 11.5ft wide so to actually get the full use of the M5HP on the side wall, It would most likely need be above my listening preferences.

Pretty sure this system in a 11.5 x 15 x 7.5 room 1300sqf will be awesome, probably the most awesomest in my town lol

Wow! A roadmap for your home theatre. Impressive.

goto or I get side tracked and find myself in the States somewhere.

Actually by the time this is all done there be an update to ATMOS, probably Auro-3D and Axiom v5 will come out just as I am about to order the ATMOS Speakers

I'm actually just waiting to see if they do upgrade that Mid driver.
I mean new HP6.5 's new tweeters, new cross overs.
What's left ???? new higher performing Mid range