As part of an av refresh, i am thinking of adding dolby atmos speakers to my 5.1 setup. Not wishing to install ceiling speakers currently so considering a couple of upfiring ‘bounce’ speakers.
However, as I am also replacing my centre speaker, an ideal solution for me would be a centre speaker with built in atmos upfiring as can be found on some sound bars.
So far, despite searching over the weekend, i have not found such a solution, anybody aware of a suitable speaker by any chance?
Yep thats indeed the case, so am looking for effectively three speakers in one box, centre, dolby front left and dolby front right. Would need three connections to the avr, one for each channel.
Maybe consider adding atmos by using eg Cambridge audio minx speakers such as the min 12 or 22. You could sit these discretely to the left and right of your centre speaker, but I think they would work best when further apart. And ideally as high as possible. I don’t think you’ll find an all in one solution of centre plus 2 upwards speakers, but you could approximate it with the min 12 speakers.
Have you seen the focal floorstanders with built in upwards atmos?
The 5.1 setup’s front left/right are from my main music system so not considering replacing those. Was looking at kef q50a’s for the atmos side of things, which would be positioned either side of the centre and thats what started the hunt for an all in one solution to keep things neat and tidy.
Atmos steering is fairly advanced, even in home use AV processors. To that end, it will reconfigure and mix for 7.1 also. And here I think you might find sonically better results than reflecting up firing speakers. Those are heavily dependent on the shape, absorbancy, and reflective properties of your ceiling. The list of compromising variables that introduces is vast.
For that reason, if you can’t do ceiling mounts, I’d opt for 7.1 and add additional surrounds instead. If they are high enough on the wall and positioned right, the direct sound will outperform reflected Atmos by a good margin in the home. Atmos will totally reconfigure the steering for that and you’ll still get 360 semispherical point source illusion.
In an ideal world thats true but practicalities of fitting it in our room don’t permit it, its L shaped with doors and windows where the left right surrounds would go in a 7.1 set up, our current surrounds are positioned roughly midway between the position of the left/right and rear speakers of a 7.1 setup so as to be less intrusive visually.
Also, most of our current watching is streamed and the services appear to offer more atmos 5.1 than standard 7.1 soundtracks.
I see. If it’s just streaming as opposed to a BlueRay source, I’d just leave it as 5.1 then and not bother with Atmos.
You’ve not said what your current 5.1 speakers are or whether they are integrated with a main stereo or separate. There may be an upgrade to be had just by speakers that handle awkward shaped rooms betterl But it all depends on what you’ve already got.
Am currently using rega rs1’s for centre and surrounds and wb vectors for fl,fr… vectors via audio bypass on the 252/250. Planning on replacing avr with a marantz sr6015 and the regas with something more visually fitting for the room, yet to be decided on but some white kef q’s look favourites so far purely on visual appearance.
We have legacy bluerays but all ripped and served via plex and not 4k etc
Although not strictly hifi, in a difficult room, the Bose AM 10 series 5.1 package delivers consistent results in almost any space. The key word there is consistent. That perfect tonal and linear transition between channels counts for a lot. The Kefs are without a doubt far superior (leagues ahead) of the Bose but if the room is problematic enough, I know which will perform better.
I used AM 10s for 15 years, first on Yamaha THX then on Denon AVR and they delivered sterling (unobtrusive) results in one less than ideal room after another.
Yes Klipsch. I think the best you are going to get is 3 identical centre speakers placed next to each other, end ones firing upwards. Cable entry for the end ones might prove tricky unless you add feet and raise them up from the shelf they’re sat on.
The klipsch product would suggest theres a market for a 3 way single box, maybe atmos is just too new for the designers. I guess passive soundbars are abit niche though.
