childejc
Established Member
This thread is to record my experiences of discovering, preparing for and enjoying Atmos. Hopefully it will be of use to others who, like me a few weeks ago, know little of Atmos or what is involved in setting it up. i will add to the thread over the next week or so as I complete my set up.
A few weeks ago i realised my venerable 9 year old Marantz SR8001 receiver was soon to die so I began researching a replacement. I knew there were new sound codecs that I would be able to enjoy but I had never heard of Atmos. However, having discovered its existence, a little bit of further research made it clear I had to have it, and that I would want at least 5.1.4, but may want 7.1.4.
So I ordered an 11 channel Denon 6300 at a pretty good price, it being last year's model. I then set about sourcing suitable new speakers.
My current set up is 7.1 with the 4 surrounds all being in ceiling bipoles. It works pretty well but I have always suspected that being in-ceiling was a compromise, albeit very neat and tidy. My Atmos research revealed that the base level speakers should all ideally be at ear height. An excellent excuse to buy some new ear level surrounds .
This is how the room will look when everything is in place. Green denotes base level at ear height and amber denotes the 4 Atmos speakers. My ceiling is at 2.4m and is flat plaster. In other words, pretty much ideal for up-firing Atmos modules.
The front 2 Atmos speakers are PSB XA units that sit on top of my front L and R speakers. The rear 2 Atmos speakers are my existing Definitive Technology UIW bp/a bipole speakers.
The SL and SR are (or will be - they have yet to arrive) M&K SS150 tripole speakers, and the SBL and SBR are (or will be when they are wall mounted) M&K Xenon SURT-26 tripoles. These all complement my existing M&K LCR 850s at the front.
I thought long and hard about my Atmos speakers. The ideal is apparently to have direct radiating in-ceiling speakers. However, this would have entailed replacing my existing in-ceiling bipolar back speakers, and making lots of mess in my ceiling to fit 2 new speakers in the middle. I decided my ears are not discerning enough to justify that amount of disruption so my compromise is to repurpose my back surrounds as Atmos rears and to buy 2 new Amos up firers for the front. My research suggested that for a ceiling of my height and finish these would work well. My only real concern was about creating a hybrid of real and virtual ceiling speakers, but on the dolby Atmos site they said this would be OK so I proceeded. I was also concerned that using bipoles for Atmos might not work, but i decided I had nothing to lose as I could always replace them later if necessary.
I also thought long and hard about my surrounds and whether I should go for direct radiating or dipole or bipole or tripole. Direct radiating are supposed to be the best if you can place them optimally, which I was not sure I could do, especially my back surrounds. Dipole is frowned on by dolby in an Atmos set up, although it is good in a smallish room. So in the end I settled on 2 pairs of tripoles, to hopefully give me the best of both worlds. The side surrounds have yet to arrive, and the back surrounds have yet to be mounted. Therefore currently my set up is 5.1.4 with my existing in-ceiling bipoles as my side surrounds. This is definitely not optimal as the steering of Atmos effects assumes they will be at ear height. However it is the best I can do for now.
So how does it sound so far? Pretty damn brilliant
Tonight was the first chance to hear the Atmos demo disk. Wow it is impressive. I really liked the shorts that had been created just to demonstrate the effects, especially the jumbo jet demo. It really is as good as I had hoped. Listening to the rain with my eyes closed sounded and felt completely real.
My main concern now is that it sounded so good I am wondering just how much value I am going to get out of the further technical improvements to come when I get my new surrounds set up. Did I really need them? Maybe I should have done the upgrade in stages and only proceeded to the next stage after first living with the current stage for a while. Anyway, too late now. I am sure they will sound better, and I will certainly tell myself they do! And I won't let the boss hear the system until they are installed
I'll give further feedback once the new surrounds are installed and the room is properly finished and I have done a good Audyssey set up. At the moment it is a bit of a bomb site so I am not sure the current Audyssey set up is as good as it could have been.
If there is anyone thinking of doing something similar and who has any questions please ask and I will try to help.
A few weeks ago i realised my venerable 9 year old Marantz SR8001 receiver was soon to die so I began researching a replacement. I knew there were new sound codecs that I would be able to enjoy but I had never heard of Atmos. However, having discovered its existence, a little bit of further research made it clear I had to have it, and that I would want at least 5.1.4, but may want 7.1.4.
So I ordered an 11 channel Denon 6300 at a pretty good price, it being last year's model. I then set about sourcing suitable new speakers.
My current set up is 7.1 with the 4 surrounds all being in ceiling bipoles. It works pretty well but I have always suspected that being in-ceiling was a compromise, albeit very neat and tidy. My Atmos research revealed that the base level speakers should all ideally be at ear height. An excellent excuse to buy some new ear level surrounds .
This is how the room will look when everything is in place. Green denotes base level at ear height and amber denotes the 4 Atmos speakers. My ceiling is at 2.4m and is flat plaster. In other words, pretty much ideal for up-firing Atmos modules.
The front 2 Atmos speakers are PSB XA units that sit on top of my front L and R speakers. The rear 2 Atmos speakers are my existing Definitive Technology UIW bp/a bipole speakers.
The SL and SR are (or will be - they have yet to arrive) M&K SS150 tripole speakers, and the SBL and SBR are (or will be when they are wall mounted) M&K Xenon SURT-26 tripoles. These all complement my existing M&K LCR 850s at the front.
I thought long and hard about my Atmos speakers. The ideal is apparently to have direct radiating in-ceiling speakers. However, this would have entailed replacing my existing in-ceiling bipolar back speakers, and making lots of mess in my ceiling to fit 2 new speakers in the middle. I decided my ears are not discerning enough to justify that amount of disruption so my compromise is to repurpose my back surrounds as Atmos rears and to buy 2 new Amos up firers for the front. My research suggested that for a ceiling of my height and finish these would work well. My only real concern was about creating a hybrid of real and virtual ceiling speakers, but on the dolby Atmos site they said this would be OK so I proceeded. I was also concerned that using bipoles for Atmos might not work, but i decided I had nothing to lose as I could always replace them later if necessary.
I also thought long and hard about my surrounds and whether I should go for direct radiating or dipole or bipole or tripole. Direct radiating are supposed to be the best if you can place them optimally, which I was not sure I could do, especially my back surrounds. Dipole is frowned on by dolby in an Atmos set up, although it is good in a smallish room. So in the end I settled on 2 pairs of tripoles, to hopefully give me the best of both worlds. The side surrounds have yet to arrive, and the back surrounds have yet to be mounted. Therefore currently my set up is 5.1.4 with my existing in-ceiling bipoles as my side surrounds. This is definitely not optimal as the steering of Atmos effects assumes they will be at ear height. However it is the best I can do for now.
So how does it sound so far? Pretty damn brilliant
Tonight was the first chance to hear the Atmos demo disk. Wow it is impressive. I really liked the shorts that had been created just to demonstrate the effects, especially the jumbo jet demo. It really is as good as I had hoped. Listening to the rain with my eyes closed sounded and felt completely real.
My main concern now is that it sounded so good I am wondering just how much value I am going to get out of the further technical improvements to come when I get my new surrounds set up. Did I really need them? Maybe I should have done the upgrade in stages and only proceeded to the next stage after first living with the current stage for a while. Anyway, too late now. I am sure they will sound better, and I will certainly tell myself they do! And I won't let the boss hear the system until they are installed
I'll give further feedback once the new surrounds are installed and the room is properly finished and I have done a good Audyssey set up. At the moment it is a bit of a bomb site so I am not sure the current Audyssey set up is as good as it could have been.
If there is anyone thinking of doing something similar and who has any questions please ask and I will try to help.