Question Atmos or 5.1?

evertec

Novice Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2020
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
26
Age
41
Location
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
I'm building a house with a corner fireplace that I was going to put my TV above with a pull down mount. I've prewired 4 ceiling speakers, 2 in the front, 2 in the back, as well as a sub connection. My initial thought was to have a soundbar as the center channel attached to the TV that pulls down along with it. Now, I am wondering if it would be better to have a 3 channel soundbar for the center, left, right and use the ceiling speakers as atmos height speakers. What do you guys think? Would it be better to have the left and right channels separated more or use the soundbar with atmos height? Thanks in advance!
 
Welcome to the Forum.

You would need to connect everything to a processor, usually an AVR, to facilitate the use of Atmos. Having a soundbar and Atmos speakers is not going to work. You will need a receiver capable of 5.1.2 as a minimum. That speaker layout would consist of three front speakers, two surround speakers and at least two speakers in the ceiling. You have stated that there are four speakers in the Atmos domain in the ceiling this would be a 5.1.4 set up. You have not mentioned any surround speakers.
 
Welcome to the Forum.

You would need to connect everything to a processor, usually an AVR, to facilitate the use of Atmos. Having a soundbar and Atmos speakers is not going to work. You will need a receiver capable of 5.1.2 as a minimum. That speaker layout would consist of three front speakers, two surround speakers and at least two speakers in the ceiling. You have stated that there are four speakers in the Atmos domain in the ceiling this would be a 5.1.4 set up. You have not mentioned any surround speakers.

Yes, I realize I need a receiver, I've wired everything back to a closet that will house that. My use of a soundbar would not be a powered one, it would be a passive soundbar that is fed by the receiver. The rear ceiling speakers would be utilized as the surrounds. So my question is, should that soundbar be used as just a center speaker and use the left and right ceiling speakers as the front left and right channels or should I get a soundbar that has 3 channels and use the left and right ceiling speakers as atmos height speakers instead?
 
Two things, for the soundbar to work it would need three separate analogue connections, one each for left and right and one for the centre. Having surrounds in the ceiling in an Atmos set up again is not going to work as there will be no separation between the Atmos layer and the base floor layer (5.1). I suggest you have a look at the Dolby recommendations on speaker placement.

It would be a good idea if you could post a diagram of the your room with the TV position and those of the speakers. You have mentioned a corner placement which is always the most difficult to get right and if so it may be worthwhile considering a 4.1.2 set up without the use of a centre speaker. This is often the best way to set up a corner unit as the front left and right will have to be so close together. The centre channel is then downmixed into those left and right speakers.

I am not a fan of using any speakers above a seated head height for use in a 5.1 base layer set up. Ceiling speakers should be the preserve of the Atmos layer.

 
Yes, the sound bars I was looking at have 3 separate connections, or you can get one with one. I've attached a sketch showing where I have each speaker wire run to and where the TV is. I have 3 speaker wires run to where the TV is. Let me know what you think my best setup should be. Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • snapshot-Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19_51_43 GMT.jpg
    snapshot-Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19_51_43 GMT.jpg
    32.9 KB · Views: 50
In all honesty I would stick with just two front speakers or a good soundbar with a HDMI connection to the TV. The seating arrangement is not conducive to a good 5.1 and certainly not a 5.1.2 arrangements. If the TV was on the left hand wall then that would be far easier and you would be able to set up a good speaker arrangement. None of the speaker positions you have marked would be good for Atmos with perhaps the front two, although too far forward, could be used.

I would certainly not bother with a centre, use the front two ceiling option for Atmos and try and place surrounds in a correct position. Alternatively use the rear ceiling speakers for surrounds in a 4.1.

I'm not familiar with the soundbar you have linked to as they are not available, as far as I know, here in the UK.
 
Well, I'm too far in to really change the locations at this point and I think having some rear presence would be better than only a soundbar. Not sure what you're saying that you wouldn't bother with a center, but use the front two ceiling for atmos. Are you saying use a soundbar that only has right and left channels and then use the ceiling for atmos speakers?
 
I would certainly not bother with a centre

Also, when you say you wouldn't bother with a center, didn't you say before you didn't think ceiling speakers were good to use as your base setup? Wouldn't using the soundbar as a center be better than using the two ceilings as center and L/R combined?
 
The decision is up to you how you wish to proceed given that the speakers are in place. Personally I would get a good receiver and use a stereo front without a centre. This is always going to sound better than a soundbar. You don't need a centre. You could then use those rear ceiling speakers as surrounds.

Standmount speakers will certainly give a better audio quality than a soundbar, any soundbar. A stereo pair will give a better separation and front soundstage that the soundbar will be able to portray. It would also be far better for music if that is also on your radar. A receiver will give better connectivity by a acting as a HDMI hub for any equipment.

The layout is highly compromised but a lot of us have to live with some kind of compromise. You will need a receiver to process any audio signals, especially for Atmos so it seems pointless to not use one to it's potential.
 
The decision is up to you how you wish to proceed given that the speakers are in place. Personally I would get a good receiver and use a stereo front without a centre. This is always going to sound better than a soundbar. You don't need a centre. You could then use those rear ceiling speakers as surrounds.

Standmount speakers will certainly give a better audio quality than a soundbar, any soundbar. A stereo pair will give a better separation and front soundstage that the soundbar will be able to portray. It would also be far better for music if that is also on your radar. A receiver will give better connectivity by a acting as a HDMI hub for any equipment.

The layout is highly compromised but a lot of us have to live with some kind of compromise. You will need a receiver to process any audio signals, especially for Atmos so it seems pointless to not use one to it's potential.

Oh I see, you're saying add additional freestanding speakers. Unfortunately, that's not an option, I need it to either be a soundbar or built in to the ceiling like I have. There wouldn't be anywhere to put freestanding speakers in this small room given what we're using it for. The receiver I'm already planning to get. So I know they're all bad options in your opinion, but back to the original question, if it's between using a soundbar as the center and the two ceilings as left/right, or the soundbar as left/center/right and the ceilings as height, or the ceilings as left/right and no soundbar, what would you choose?
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom