Home entertainment system build recommendations

[rage2]

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not having sampled Atmos with music, is there anything available like selective sound placement (eg. Hz range of 100-1000) in the ceiling?

Or is is just for movies and the 3d sound effect?

Atmos is 3D positioning. So for music if there’s a location for a sound (ie snare drum) positioned above you, it’ll primarily play that in the ceiling and bits of that audio in other speakers depending on layout. What you’re talking about is selective eq on speakers, I’m guessing to optimize output based on the type of speaker? Every atmos receiver/decoder already does that during the calibration process.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Out of curiosity how much of your media actually supports Atmos? Does Netflix at all?

Even if it's not ATMOS, a good receiver/processor will take a DD or DTS soundtrack and process it for ATMOS / DTS-X. It's not as good as the real thing, but it does a surprisingly good job.

[killramos]

Atmos is certainly not a pie in the sky thing. It’s just natural evolution of audio signals away from discrete audio channels. It makes everything sound better.

[rage2]

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Even if it's not ATMOS, a good receiver/processor will take a DD or DTS soundtrack and process it for ATMOS / DTS-X. It's not as good as the real thing, but it does a surprisingly good job.

Specifically it'll line up the channel specific audio in a 5.1 or 7.1 config in an ideal 3d position to match reference setup. I don't think many people (including myself) ever had a 5.1 or 7.1 system in a perfect reference position. Running it under Atmos certainly helps gets it closer regardless of physical position not matching.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Specifically it'll line up the channel specific audio in a 5.1 or 7.1 config in an ideal 3d position to match reference setup. I don't think many people (including myself) ever had a 5.1 or 7.1 system in a perfect reference position. Running it under Atmos certainly helps gets it closer regardless of physical position not matching.

Yup. Between that and good room correction it's amazing what you can end up with these days without technically ideal speaker positioning. A lot of receivers even ask you if your Atmos speakers are ceiling, wall, or floor mounted as they have different processing for each.

It could just be in my head but I think I prefer DTS-X processing - the overhead effects seem to be more pronounced. Hard to do A/B comparisons though since most movies aren't mastered in both.

[rage2]

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Yup. Between that and good room correction it's amazing what you can end up with these days without technically ideal speaker positioning. A lot of receivers even ask you if your Atmos speakers are ceiling, wall, or floor mounted as they have different processing for each.

As long as it's setup right. My cousin's $15k atmos investment sounded terrible to him after he heard mine. Speakers wired wrong, ceiling speakers setup for wall height, and didn't even run through auto calibration haha. After an hour of rewiring, reconfigurations and calibrations, it's night and day.

Most people won't read the manual, which is a huge problem in setting up Atmos.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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As long as it's setup right. My cousin's $15k atmos investment sounded terrible to him after he heard mine. Speakers wired wrong, ceiling speakers setup for wall height, and didn't even run through auto calibration haha. After an hour of rewiring, reconfigurations and calibrations, it's night and day.

Most people won't read the manual, which is a huge problem in setting up Atmos.

Haha wow, I bet it sounded a million times better after.

It's amazing how many people don't even run room correction, they just hook up the speakers/inputs and call it a day. I was helping someone a couple days ago complaining their sub sounded like garbage and it turned out they just had Audyssey disabled.

[Buster]

Any recommendations on wall mounted rear channels?

Budget isn't a big deal, but having something discrete would be nice.

[ganesh]

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Any recommendations on wall mounted rear channels?

Budget isn't a big deal, but having something discrete would be nice.

I am not sure whether Wall mounted and discrete is possible.
This is what I went with in my HT Room. They are In Wall speakers. In your case it might not work because the HT room is already developed unless you want to get a contractor to cut holes in the wall.
I am extremely happy with the results.
Rears , https://www.focal.com/en/custom-inte...peakers/300iw6
Front and Center - https://www.focal.com/en/custom-inte...kers/300iwlcr6
Atmos (In Ceiling) - https://www.focal.com/en/custom-inte...kers/300iclcr5

[Buster]

Okay, now I have to figure out how to power these ceiling speakers. My XMC-2 should be here on Tuesday, so I want to get going on the setup.

I'm thinking about 3x monoprice 50w/channel amps: https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_...seq=1&format=2

I just don't know if 50w/channel is sufficient for the ceiling speakers?

The next option is probably an emotiva XPA 7 channel, but that's WAY overkill I think.

So, is 50w enough?

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Okay, now I have to figure out how to power these ceiling speakers. My XMC-2 should be here on Tuesday, so I want to get going on the setup.

I'm thinking about 3x monoprice 50w/channel amps: https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_...seq=1&format=2

I just don't know if 50w/channel is sufficient for the ceiling speakers?

The next option is probably an emotiva XPA 7 channel, but that's WAY overkill I think.

So, is 50w enough?

50W RMS of quality power should be plenty for surrounds unless the speakers are incredibly inefficient. Especially since the ceiling speakers will be primarily just playing environmental noises for the most part, a lot less power is required compared to say a 3-way full-range tower speaker you plan to use for critical music listening.

[Buster]

This is what I did.

[Buster]

Well, this is what 7.1.6 looks like!