I already have a nice 7.2.4 setup in my theater. All Axiom of course! But I recently moved a Denon 4100 up to my living room and now I can add a simple 5.2.2 setup there. But, I can't do ceiling speakers.
So, I can either do angled front heights or angled rear heights. It's a rectangle room, 12 feet wide, couch is up against wall. I can't put the heights on the side walls. The surrounds are on the side walls. TV is on long wall. So either I'll have front heights above TV angled to my MLP. Or, rear heights directly above couch shooting over my head. Thoughts?
Why not do some ATMOS pods on top of your M80's there are plenty to choose from. How high are you celings? You could get some ceiling speakers and build your own pods if your good with wood.
I should give more info. My theater setup is done with Atmos already. Has been Atmos for years, I just added the last two on wall M3's and took down the QS8's in the last few weeks. Much better.
The living room, is all on wall speakers. I want to add Atmos there. But can only do one set of heights. It's a small room at 12 x 14. Only so much I can do. Not going for perfection but if I can only choose one or the other do I go front height or rear? hmmm
Well since you have atmos downstairs maybe try with just the fronts and then just with the rears and see which you like better. i realize the positioning wont be ideal but it should give you some idea of what to expect. I havent added ATMOS yet still waiting on Emotiva for the upgrade but i will start with just 2 channels as well to ease the financial strain initially. So when you figure this out let us know your impressions, my money is on the fronts since the surrounds are quite close in a 5.1 anyway.
In a related Topic, Axiom needs an elevation type speaker. SVS has the right idea but didn't go far enough. For those that want Atmos but can't use ceiling speakers there's not many options. Klipsch is another brand with sorta the right idea. My issue with the SVS is you still can't the angle you need with Atmos with them unless you side fire them or have a large room. Nobody makes a speaker that can be mounted near the wall/ceiling and points almost straight down.
Front heights would be SO much easier to install in my room but I have a fear with it. I've had 5.2.2, 5.2.4, now 7.2.4 in my theater. Granted my time between 5.2.2 and 5.2.4 was very short thanks to Axiom quick delivery. But I've always noticed that movies tend to use the rear height speakers much much more. While it's technically easier to hear things from the front, I'm wondering if it'll just make the front seem larger instead of giving me the overhead Atmos effects. Say a plane flying overhead, it'll move from the front speakers to the front tops, then to the side surrounds. Will that be noticeable as say rear heights where the plane goes from the front speakers, to the rear heights to the side surrounds? or will I even hear it because they'll be firing past and over my head? If this was ceiling speakers I would without question say go with rear tops . I can't really "test" in different locations with ease as all my speakers are ran in-wall to a room downstairs. I'm going to try somehow though before mounting but to run wire across the floor, down steps etc would be along way.
So I got my front heights ordered. Figured the only way to do this was try it and see. I don't expect the same results as my in ceiling M3's, but if i can accomplish some sort of atmos height effect I'll be happy. It's not my main theater so I'm not overly picky about it.
SVS elevation. Axiom makes nothing compared to it. I didn't want to put a weirdly mounted bookshelf up there....wife would kill me. I can't drill into ceiling, so mounting on walls on the ceilings was out too. But the SVS fit tight to the ceiling.
I am going for UNI-Q's from KEF, their implementation of the tweeter intrigues me.