Atmos Speaker setup with Denon 6700H

[peterzach]

I took the plunge and got a Denon 6700 Receiver and should hopefully get it next week.

Now the dumb questions from me.
If I understand correctly is it best to get speakers to fire down at you, ceiling is not a option for me but then second best is it to mount speakers on the front and back wall if I get what people here have experienced.

My room is 14 by 15 feet.

I am using Totem Staff speakers which is a Canadina speaker and I have used Kef before and place I went to buy receiver sold me on these:

https://ca.kef.com/products/q50a-dolby-atmos-enabled-surround-speaker

I kept trying to tell guy I don't think up firing speaker is best from understanding experiences from people that have tried that but I think I can mount this same speaker on my front and rear wall or should I be rather getting a Kef bookshelf speaker.

Any thought's from experts here to help this Atmos newbie, fire away.

The sweet spot for listening is about about 7-9 feet from front wall.
I have moveable back speakers for 5.1 setup and not in pic there are 2 speakers to left and right of moveable lazyboy chair.

The wooden beam above is about 9 feet into room.
Room has 8 feet ceiling. Do I mount 2 speakers at front wall even with front 2 speakers and then mount 2 more speakers on inside of wooden beam or mount the back ceiling speaker on back wall.


Any thought's from experts here to help this Atmos newbie, fire away.

peter

 

[Marplot]

I look forward to this conversation, my 6700 should be here Sunday.

 

[paligap]

I'm no expert, but both the product page for those speakers and pages 11 and 12 of this document describe placement of that type of speaker:

https://www.dolby.com/siteassets/te...atmos-installation-guidelines-121318_r3.1.pdf

 

[Blackwood]

In both cases with my 6700s, I don’t have the most ideal setup. In my home office, the front, right height is directly in front of me about 7 feet away, while the left is about 15 feet away at 90 degrees.

I’ve come to accept that neither room will be the perfect setup, but I’m still completely in love with listening to music in either room.

 

[peterzach]

No sign of my receiver yet but do I ever appreciate the QQ family as I reached out to a few people and got some great information and pictures of people's setup via email.

Thanks as well to people responding on this thread.

 

[weekendtoy]

I started with (4) upfiring speakers and was sorely underwhelmed. I then moved to heights and everything came together. I'm sure in/on ceiling would be the next evolution, but like @peterzach , it's not feasible or aesthetically pleasing.

So definitely go heights if you can.

For me matching ATMOS speakers ranks pretty low in importance, so I'm not sure I would spend a lot of money here just to get the KEF brand. Some other options to consider would be the SVS Prime Elevation (which I have) or the Chane A4.5 (which I have the Chane 700 towers/center/surrounds and are amazing speakers and represent tremendous value).

I can provide pictures of my set up which has a similar MLP as you, if you wish.

 

[DrKlahn]

I started with (4) upfiring speakers and was sorely underwhelmed. I then moved to heights and everything came together. I'm sure in/on ceiling would be the next evolution, but like you, that's not really feasible, especially from an aesthetic aspect.

So definitely go heights if you can.

For me matching ATMOS speakers ranks pretty low in importance, so I'm not sure I would spend a lot of money here just to get the KEF brand. Some other options to consider would be the SVS Prime Elevation (which I have) or the Chane A4.5 (which I have the Chane 700 towers/center/surrounds and are amazing speakers and represent tremendous value).

I can provide pictures of my set up which has a similar MLP as you, if you wish.

I used toppers (upfiring) for the back 2 Atmos for a while and I second your observations. They were better than nothing, but going to ceiling mounted was a lot better.

I think timbre matching is very important overall, but agree that ceiling isn't quite as important. The only thing I would caution is make sure your choice for ceiling speakers isn't radically different in sound personality than your base layer. As we get more and more artists getting more and more adventurous we could see the ceiling channels becoming more important.

When I decided to get serious and redo Atmos last year, I demo'd the in ceiling candidates being used as mains. If they sounded good enough to pass here, they should be adequate for ceiling use. I did end up going with the same brand as the base channels, mainly because I wanted the voicing to be in the same ballpark as the base layer and this just seemed a solid starting point.

And I'm pleased with how it turned out. Thus far The Harmony Codex has made the most use of Atmos from a music standpoint and the ceilings haven't disappointed musically. Movies it's obviously a lot less important to match the base layer.

 

[peterzach]

Just want to say how awesome you QQ forum people are and some people from here sending me pic's and ideas. BIG BIG THANKYOU.

MY Denon receiver finally showed up on Weds(Aug.20) afternoon.
Spent much of Thursday setting up the Denon,extra speakers as well as Oppo 203 which was also new to me.

My first Atmos listen was new Peter Gabriel album which I purposely did not listen to till doing the setup. Kind of appropriate as Genesis(one of my fav bands) and when cd's were new one of my first listens was Peter Gabriel 4(Security) so Peter Gabriel it is.
WOW,WOW,WOW very cool in deed. Now I understand what all you Atmos people were talking about and I don't even have speakers setup totally properly yet and my speakers are a real mixed bag.

One thing I tried today was playing some MKV Atmos files and they all came out as 7.1(no Atmos). That sucks.
Well go on QQ here and do a search and you guys ROCK see that I need to change a setting on the OPPO for HDMI to play in Bitstream as it was set to AUTO. I would have though Auto would work.
Check it out again and files play properly in Atmos now.

BIG THANKS again.

 

[GOS]

Wow, amazing, Peter! Check your PM, I sent you a message...

 

[sjcorne]

WOW,WOW,WOW very cool in deed. Now I understand what all you Atmos people were talking about...

Have you tried any Steven Wilson mixes yet?

 

[peterzach]

Have you tried any Steven Wilson mixes yet?

YES I have,

Listened to TFF-The Hurting and Yes-The Yes Album.

I have to explain I was watching a Basketball game(GS Warriors) and listening to these 2 albums so my attention was a bit divided but the biggest revelation to me was when listening to the Yes album and I was more focused on the music than the BB game.

I have to explain as well I have my height speakers about 5 feet off the floor as this was my quickest way of being able to set something up without using hardware to mount speakers on the wall and I am using some bookshelf speakers as still debating if I should get some newer speakers for Heights.

As listening to Yes everything sounded so FULL and Discreet,nothing gimmicky in surround and as I was listening I thought this is kinda amazing as every note that is being played you can hear the details so much better from each instrument. I had not read any reviews from anyone but just am reading this morning what some people have commented and I think the 2 Jim's: JimHansonDC(post 5) and Jimfisheye(post 23) from the review of this Atmos mix have nailed what I was feeling when listening to the mix and I have quoted below from them from this thread:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/yes-the-yes-album-blu-ray-audio-dolby-atmos.35139/


JimHansonDC

Quality surround mixes can either recreate a soundstage with the effect of a great listening room or take it a step further and give you a new and embiggened experience. More than anything else additional speakers give each track/instrument room to breathe. They’re not fighting for a piece of the same frequency spectrum in a pair of even the best speakers. They can have their own launch spot and space in the room.


JimFisheye

Wilson has a mix aesthetic going in these 12 channel mixes now (same with Larks') that uses the dynamic range of the system to reveal close up detail and low level dynamics while keeping the mix perspective. This isn't just extra panning with extra channels! You wouldn't ever be able to do something like this with 5 speakers. Turn the volume up and your listening room really becomes the studio sound stage. The instruments are RIGHT THERE!

As wild as this mix is it also actually follows the vibe of the stereo original a little closer than the first 5.1 remix in balances throughout. That said, I love the extra extended liberties he took this time around with the fade outs in Starship Trooper and A Venture even beyond the 5.1 remix!

 

[timbre4]

Hi Peter, I'm late to this party. I've just gotten started for real in the office/mancave after a couple years of 5.1.2 (pair of ELAC upfiring speakers) that hinted but didn't deliver. I've gone with the concept that I'm completing a cube for the sound field. so this is a 5.2.4 setup with a pair on the front wall and back wall. Once I got the Denon AVR-X4300h Audyssey process done properly, it glued it all together. Now I'm getting the effect pretty well.

I have a vaulted ceiling with no access above it, so I'm going to use this configuration until I can figure out how to improve placement of heights. Pretty happy even now. It can only get better!