Ideal Atmos Inceiling Speaker Location Recommendations

[Deleted]

Hi all,

I'm designing out a 3.2.4 system. The ceiling is cathedral and I'm wondering about the best location placement based on listening position in the room such as the main couch. Does anyone have any tips and/or graphs etc which may give me an idea about speaker placement overhead? I'm looking to place 4 speakers in the ceiling rather than using upward atmos firing speakers to reflect off such a high ceiling.

Thanks in advance,

William

[SteveH]

I have cathedral ceilings and pondered the same question as you for several weeks. I installed four Definitive Technology DI8R speakers for Dobly Atmos in my ceiling. You are going to need going to use some basic geometry/trigonometry to calculate the speaker placement. My ceiling slope is 15 degrees. I drew a scale drawing of my room to help me decide where to mount the speakers. Make sure you buy speakers with pivoting tweeters which will allow you to make aiming corrections to accommodate the speaker installation/placement anomalies. My tweeters will pivot a total of 30 degrees.  Knowing that, you can figure out the best placement of the speakers so the area you need to cover can fall within the tweeter's pivot range.  I made 30 degree paper triangles to represent the speaker's pivoting tweeter coverage so I could slide it along the ceiling drawing to find the best speaker placements.  Once I figured out the best speaker locations on paper, I measured everything on the ceiling ten times, went into the attic to make sure I wasn't going to have interference with any trusses and then poked wire through the ceiling to verify the speaker locations before I actually cut holes in my ceiling. Make sure you plan it well, if you plan it well and take your time, it will come out perfect!

[AudioHTIT]

Good advice from Steve, I’ve seen his video before and like it too, as I’ll eventually be drilling holes. I have a vaulted ceiling and my first go will be speakers mounted in my loft, bouncing down off the ceiling to the listening area, so not a lot longer than direct. Also did scale drawings and math to compute the angle of the speaker stands to get the bounce right.

These are also a good starting point (nothing exactly 3.1.4)
www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/3.1.2-overhead-speakers-setup-guide.html

www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1.4-dolby-atmos-enabled-speaker-setup-guide.html

[Deleted]

Aug 8, 2019 17:35:47 GMT -5 SteveH said:

I have cathedral ceilings and pondered the same question as you for several weeks. I installed four Definitive Technology DI8R speakers for Dobly Atmos in my ceiling. You are going to need going to use some basic geometry/trigonometry to calculate the speaker placement. My ceiling slope is 15 degrees. I drew a scale drawing of my room to help me decide where to mount the speakers. Make sure you buy speakers with pivoting tweeters which will allow you to make aiming corrections to accommodate the speaker installation/placement anomalies. My tweeters will pivot a total of 30 degrees.  Knowing that, you can figure out the best placement of the speakers so the area you need to cover can fall within the tweeter's pivot range.  I made 30 degree paper triangles to represent the speaker's pivoting tweeter coverage so I could slide it along the ceiling drawing to find the best speaker placements.  Once I figured out the best speaker locations on paper, I measured everything on the ceiling ten times, went into the attic to make sure I wasn't going to have interference with any trusses and then poked wire through the ceiling to verify the speaker locations before I actually cut holes in my ceiling. Make sure you plan it well, if you plan it well and take your time, it will come out perfect!

View Attachment

Very nice video Steve! Pro install.

[Gary Cook]

Measurements .......... way too hard, I used a laser pointer at right angles to the ceiling, simply moved it up and down the slope till it pointed at my position. That was the centre of the 2 speaker locations for my 5.1.2 layout. One on the left and one equidistant on the right, too easy.

Cheers
Gary