Trying 5.1.4 with Cambridge minx, 2 wide above screen and 2 above me only a few feet apart
MLP is on the back wall
Your speakers are not in a Recognised Dolby 5.1.4 configuration. More like 7.1.2 with the 7 being the usual 5 plus Front Heights (which are not Atmos configuration speakers (Which may explain why you are underwhelmed!)
Note that NONE of the recommended/supported Dolby speaker configurations for Atmos include direct firing wall mounted height speakers. (Including speakers mounted hanging from the ceiling but at the edge of the room). Atmos REQUIRES direct overhead sound.
So often do we see pictures like this purporting to be an 7.1.4 Atmos setup. It isn’t. (We won’t go into the position of those stand mounted surrounds on wheels!) There are no speakers generating sound radiating from above the head of any of the listeners.
This is not an Atmos setup! Period. It just isn’t! Forum visitors may have something like this and enjoy the sound, which is great. But it is not Atmos, because Dolby closely define what constitutes Atmos setups.
These speakers are Klipsch RP-500SA and are correctly marketed as Atmos/Surround speakers but misused/ misinterpreted by consumers. They are dual-purpose speakers. They CAN be atmos speakers, but only by being horizontal, atop floorstanders for example, and bouncing sound off the ceiling. When wall mounted as shown in the picture, they are merely surround speakers. Definitely not Atmos speakers. Just high mounted surround speakers
Atmos speakers are ONLY speakers that cause sound to emanate from a middle part of the ceiling. This is either mid-ceiling mounted (in or on) down firing speakers OR Dolby enabled “sound bouncers” firing sound off the Mid ceiling to reflect towards the listener to trick the ear into thinking the sound is coming FROM the central part of the ceiling overhead.
Also, ONLY ceiling direct down firing Speakers or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers (table, speaker top or wall mounted, but definitely only bouncing speakers aimed at the ceiling and bouncing sound off it to the listening position.) are supported in Atmos. These wall or peripheral ceiling speakers are not, and will not give the correct effect.
There are 30 Dolby sanctioned Atmos configurations for home theatre.
www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/ONLY ceiling Down-firing "Top” speakers or sound bouncers "Dolby Enabled" feature in the whole of this.
Direct firing wall or edge of ceiling Height speakers angled downwards (so not ceiling bouncing) are NOT Atmos speakers.
A pair of front height speakers are supported in Dolby ProLogic IIz (and may also be supported by the Dolby Surround Upmixer and possibly Atmos (but as height speakers and not Atmos speakers) but I can’t find anything about this either way)
Your overhead two speakers, (I am therefore assuming on/in-ceiling down-firers), if overhead are not far enough back to be Top Rears and not far enough forwards to be Top Front. They only meet the official Top Middle criteria by a) being in an x.1.2 setup or, b) being the Top Middle set in a six ceiling mounted setup x.1.6 with Top Fronts and Top Rears in addition
Your front wide height speakers are too far forwards and not ceiling mounted so probably ought not to be included as anything other than front height. Because these are not part of Atmos (we don’t know how the RMC-1 reports them to Atmos decoder. If they are equated as Top front Atmos speakers this may explain your bad sound as, if dealt with as front tops, you will not get the overhead Atmos effect. If the Atmos decoder works like ProLogic IIz and uses front heights (I can’t find evidence for this) , the Atmos overhead sound probably won’t get routed to your front heights as they are not speakers In an Atmos configuration as far as the Atmos decoder is concerned.. That is not to say that you won’t get sound out of them, But you SHOULD only get upmixed front height sound and not Atmos overhead sound, if it is being done correctly. Depending on How the Emotiva reports the speakers present in your system to the Atmos decoder, the Atmos decoder SHOULD treat your system like it is only 7.1.2 (with front wides) with the .2 Atmos speakers being as only the rear Surround portion as you have set it up. You will thus be missing the overhead information from the front channels as there are no front (or middle) overhead speakers in your system. Front height information is more important than rear height sound information, just as front channels (from which overhead sound is extracted) are more important than rear.
I’m betting this explains why you are underwhelmed.
I’d suggest you start simple with a known and recognised Atmos setup you seem to be able to replicate (assuming you do have central ceiling mounted down-firers). I think you should initially leave your front heights disabled to test this setup. I think you will be amazed.
I only put in my 7.1.2 Middle Tops this week and the sound coming from them is awesome. Both with Atmos sources and Dolby Surround Upmixed audio. It is an instant game changer which is why I think you are suffering from the speaker configuration errors/anomalies I have put above.
Please, try 5.1.2 using your direct overhead speakers configured as "Top Middle"in the Front Height Section of the speaker configuration setup.
this is a core Atmos setup.
Top Middles in a 5.1.2 should be Directly overhead or slightly forwards (80 degrees from horizontal) as per
www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1.2-overhead-speaker-setup-guide/Sorry to upset, but to the people who insist that their wall mounted height surround speakers are part of an Atmos system - I’m sorry, but no. Not my opinion, but fact, from Dolby themselves.
Dolby know and knew that the only way to get sound coming from above you is to get sound coming from above you. Not from the sides! The brain is very clever for using cues to know where sound comes from. For those that have in ceiling speakers like a cinema - you’re in!. For those that don’t, Dolby had to invent those sound bouncers. They work, but they were not invented to make licensing fees from the speakers. Dolby had to come up with a workable alternative to ceiling speakers for people who can’t/won’t install ceiling speakers because Dolby knew that peripherally mounted wall/ceiling junction speakers (like the Klipsch in my pic above) CANNOT do the job.
after two seconds in the room above and two seconds in an identical room with ceiling down firers, the overhead sound emanation will be obvious from the Atmos setup that the wall mounters can’t replicate.
of note, the original Dolby recommendation position for side surrounds was 2 feet above ear level. For Atmos they have to be moved back down to ear level. If Atmos could be made convincing with wall height speakers they would have just left them there or recommended they go even higher..
You need direct overhead sound for Atmos .
need. It’s a mandatory part of the specification.
Either reflected from Dolby Enabled or direct from mid ceiling down-firers (they don’t actually need to be embedded IN the ceiling)
