When the car flies over your head in the opening scene of Mad Max: Fury Road, you hear it above you. So I set up a few different options to test them side-by-side. Dolby performs comprehensive testing on Dolby Atmos enabled speakers to insure that Your front speakers still do most of the heavy lifting, but the ceiling speakers help to “fill out” the sound, and you can hear the difference when switching between the 5.1 and Atmos tracks in those scenes. Dolby Atmos is the new hotness when it comes to home theater gear, but there are a lot of different ways you can incorporate Atmos into your setup. He eats potato chips with chopsticks so he doesn't get grease on his mechanical keyboard. Should I Replace My 20-Year-Old Subwoofer? Though I feel I need to qualify that statement: If you’ve heard people say it’s a “night and day” difference, or that “overhead effects are a total game-changer,” temper your expectations just a tad. WTF! Dolby Atmos is the latest and greatest surround sound format for the home. You can have up to 24 speakers … Is it possible to install a Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 or 5.1.4 configuration using only in-ceiling speakers with directional tweeters? If you can get speakers that are all from the same series, that’s ideal, but not crucial. The Audioholics Showcase Theater Room, which is an acoustically controlled listening space roughly 6,000 cubic feet with 8’ flat ceilings and And if in-ceiling speakers are too complex or pricey, you can always put them on the wall for front or rear heights, as described in Dolby’s setup guide. How Do I Know When to Change My Projector’s Bulb? CEILING BOUNCE ATMOS ELEVATION SPEAKERS. Q I sell home cinema and A/V systems professionally and wanted to get your thoughts on the following questions. The Atmos-enabled category consists of integrated models containing both front and upward-firing driver sets, the latter meant to reproduce overhead effects by bouncing sound off the ceiling, or add-on modules with upward firing drivers that sit atop your main and rear speakers. For the most impressive performance, have your speakers at or slightly above ear level when seated. It’s just not always obvious how. Options: Walnut (# 1066508) (loading price...) Per Pair. Required coverage / dispersion, speakers pointing straight down. Klipsch R-41SA Dolby Atmos Speaker Module($399 per pair) - Designed to sit on top of existing floorstanding/bookshelf speakers, adding Dolby Atmos audio capabilities. It’s rather impressive, and useful when you have a room with vaulted or textured ceilings, where up-firing speakers won’t work. Like I said above, those are fewer and further between, though, and the up-firing speakers were still able to produce that 3D bubble of ambient sound easily. Dolby Atmos is on the one hand a new technology / standard in which audio objects can move freely in space (you no longer have the feeling that a sound comes from a specific speaker with it in the middle of the sound, it surrounds you) and on the other hand a new speaker setup. They additionally recommend using “conventional overhead speakers with wide dispersion characteristics.” You can play a Dolby Atmos movie and get the spatial effects on nearly any speaker configuration in a home Dolby Atmos system, and adding speakers increases the precision of the audio placement. 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And if you want to eschew the receiver entirely, you could go with a soundbar setup like Vizio’s beautifully-named SB46514-F6. If it makes you feel better, the guidelines also state this: “Dolby Atmos is a highly flexible We are even starting to see some tower speakers with the elevation speaker built into the top which is pretty cool. Should I Use My Subwoofer’s LFE or Line Input Connections? You can add a single speaker in the middle of the area. Polk Audio 5.1 Channel Home Theater System with Powered Subwoofer... Polk Audio MC60 2-Way in-Ceiling 6.5" Speaker (Single) | Dynamic... Pioneer VSX-LX303 9.2 Channel 4k UltraHD Network A/V Receiver... Sony STR-DH790 7.2-ch Surround Sound Home Theater AV Receiver: 4K... Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle [4K Ultra HD+ Blu-ray + Digital], ELAC Debut 2.0 A4.2 Dolby Atmos Modules, Black. angle from the overhead speakers to the main listening seat. A number of speaker companies have add-on modules for their tower speakers that do just this, including the aforementioned ELAC Debut series. My idea is to have the front left, center, and front right speakers in a straight parallel line close to the screen wall, and the surround speakers in the extreme rear corners of the room in-line with the front left and front right speakers. Pioneer SP-T22A-LR Add-on Speaker designed by Andrew Jones for Dolby... Pioneer SP-FS52 Home Audio Andrew Jones Designed Floor Standing... Pioneer SP-BS22-LR Andrew Jones Home Audio Bookshelf Loudspeakers... VIZIO SB46514-F6 46" 5.1.4 Home Theater Sound System with Dolby Atmos... VIZIO SB46312-F6 46" 3.1.2 Home Theater Sound System with Dolby Atmos... Yamaha Audio YAS-209BL Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer, Bluetooth,... Sony Z9R Wireless Speaker for Z9F Sound bar (SA-Z9R), More of these virtual Atmos soundbars are on the way. SVS Prime Elevation Speakers ($399 per p… The addition of Dolby Atmos elevation speakers reflects sound from the ceiling to put sound anywhere in your room it needs to be, truly making you feel like you’re in the middle of the action. Even without up-firing drivers, it produced a noticeable difference between Atmos and non-Atmos tracks in the same movie, filling up that (slightly shallower) 3D bubble with sound for a noticeably better experience. It’s fairly easy to choose a Dolby Atmos speaker setup. It’s subtle at first, but you’ll notice it in scenes like the sandstorm in Fury Road, where the wind is swirling above you, or when the elevator hits the ground and explodes after the lobby scene in The Matrix. Do what you can with the space you have, and don’t fret about it being 100% ideal—it’s all about watching the movies as best you can in your space, and any of the setups above are capable of a good experience. Dolby’s installation guidelines further specify that listener-level speakers should all be placed at the same height — 3.9 feet, or ear-level for an average listener. If in-ceiling isn’t an option, you can attach the speakers to the ceiling or high up on a wall. Can I Use AirPlay 2 With Both Wireless and Wired Speaker Setups? I completed a couple of Dolby Atmos speakers in past couple of weeks. How Do I Get Dolby 5.1 from My TV’s Streaming Apps to My Old Receiver. Enjoy immersive, dynamic audio with this Polk Audio VT60 in-ceiling speaker, which features a 6.5" Dynamic Balance polypropylene cone and a 0.75" swivel-mount, aimable silk-dome tweeter for clear low, high and midrange tones. These are front upward firing Atmos speakers that reflect the sound of the ceiling creating surround effect from the ceiling. Room treatment considerations for use of Dolby Atmos enabled speakers For optimal performance, the ceiling should be flat (not angled or vaulted), with a height between 7.5 and 14 feet (2.3 to 4.3 meters), and made of an acoustically reflective material (drywall, plaster, hardwood, or another rigid, non---sound-absorbing material). Compromise is not a bad thing—most home theaters have to compromise somewhere, unless you have a truly dedicated theater room with full reign to perfect the room’s acoustics. Dolby Atmos is highly scalable. Let’s talk about the difference between “virtual” Atmos, up-firing drivers, and dedicated in-ceiling speakers. 98 Dolby thought of this, and allows room in their spec for up-firing speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling for those overhead effects. These are ... more hit or miss. Whitson Gordon is a writer, gamer, and all-around tech nerd. More of these virtual Atmos soundbars are on the way, with companies like TCL, Klipsch, and Denon showing off their own virtual 3D soundbars that promise to be just as good. Which you specify will depend on the size of the area and your power handling needs. A 5.1.4 or 7.1.4 system uses four ceiling speakers, or four Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers or modules. This add-on speaker comes at a budget-friendly cost while being fully optimized to add a dimensional sound experience to your room. What’s a listener-level speaker? I added on to an old Energy stereo setup I’ve had for years, but you could do something similar using four ELAC Debut bookshelves with a matching center channel and in-ceiling speakers. Plus, while soundbars are great for space savings, their size can also be their Achilles’ heel—2.5-inch drivers can never compete with a real set of large speakers, and Sony’s bar doesn’t sound as good as larger Vizio or Samsung models (or true bookshelves and towers, for that matter). For a 5.1.4 configuration, the speakers should be installed in-line with front left/right speakers, and ceiling height should ideally be between two and three times the vertical position of the front left/right speakers. The Pioneer SP-T22A-LR features on our list as one of the best ceiling speakers for Dolby Atmos currently available at the market. solution, so minor variations from these recommendations are unlikely to materially detract from the immersive Dolby Atmos experience.”, Looking for a TV-Worthy Interface for Streaming Music. Likewise, the units can also be used as surround speakers. If you’re reading this, and you’re currently contemplating installing ceiling speakers, we probably don’t need to … Drivers used Peerless TC9FD18-08 Initially when I tested the Atmos speakers, I was disappoint as I could not hear much effect. Dolby details a few different ways you can set up your speakers, but I opted for a 5.1.4 setup using tower speakers in the front, a matching center channel, two bookshelves on the rear wall, and four speakers installed in my ceiling. Most speakers have a wide diffuse pattern. It’s nice, but it’s far less immersive than a setup with rear surrounds that also fire upwards. And that’s where Sony’s Z9F really excels, particularly when coupled with the sold-separately Z9R rear speakers. While Dolby is very specific about the requirements for listener-level speakers in Atmos systems, they’re more flexible about overhead speakers, which could be either in-ceiling, on-ceiling, or “Atmos-enabled” models. I love my Atmos setup, but for different reasons than I originally thought I would. Features a 4" spun-copper IMG woofer, 1" Aluminum LTS tweeter mated to a 90x90 square Tractrix Horn, and 100 Watt Power Handling. Dolby ATMOS Ceiling Speaker Placement 9.2.6, 9.2.4, 9.2.2 Made EASY!! The set comes as a pair. The speaker itself might be good, but there's nothing making it an Atmos speaker which you couldn't replicate with any other speaker aimed a few degrees from parallel toward the ceiling. Sony’s Z9F soundbar, which has its own vertical surround engine, isn’t much better when it comes to adding height to non-Atmos tracks. With the speakers pointed straight the front Atmos ceiling speaker must have consistent coverage out to ~70 degrees off axis! It seems that upmixing works significantly better on an actual receiver than it does on a soundbar, even if a soundbar does true Atmos pretty well. A lot of guides like this would start on the lower end and work their way up to the more expensive, complex stuff. For some assistance, HERE is the official Dolby page showing a wide variety of Atmos speaker configurations. New AV receivers that support Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 or 5.1.4 configuration using only speakers! 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