How different is Atmos speaker from others?

[swamytk]

The title says. How the "atmos speaker" sold in market is different from Front/Surrond speakers? Is it just a matter of mounting features or it is has specific driver feature too?

 

[sriram_shol]

In general the spacial sound production from your AVR requires speakers to be placed at a height of at least ~7+ feet to down fire towards the seating position. As you might be aware, Dolby suggests 3 different types of speaker placement to reproduce the Atmos spacial sound.

1. By installing in ceiling speakers to create sound field just above your head. This gives true ceiling effects as the speakers down fire to create the exact sound what it is supposed to reproduce.
2. Next is the height speakers. This is meant for people who don't have provision or have difficulty placing in ceiling speakers. This would need Bookshelf or jewel cube speakers to be placed at 8 feet just above the front L & R and rear L & R in 45' tilted position. This would produce ~90 and above percentage of Atmos sound field and this would well suit for Auro 3D configuration.
3. Finally the up firing speaker which is pretty much a snake oil to showcase sound can also be up fired to bounce towards the listener. I have placed such a speaker right on top of the L & R bookshelf speakers before but experience was not all that great as compared to the 2nd option.

Best is to install the in ceiling speakers to have the ultimate Atmos experience. But a bookshelf speaker placed at the right height and tilted at 45 degree will give enough dispersion of sound creating Atmos experience.

Except the dipole speakers any BS speakers can be placed for Atmos say for down firing or heights. It is finally an individual's choice to go for the speaker considering what is possible for his room.

 

[RajithKumar]

The title says. How the "atmos speaker" sold in market is different from Front/Surrond speakers? Is it just a matter of mounting features or it is has specific driver feature too?

Its a marketing gimmick.."Atmos speakers".They specify it for up firing modules which is a snake oil.
If you can able to mount a satellite/bookshelf speakers at the specified angle either on ceiling or high on walls( with Tilt down) .It will work fine.

 

[swamytk]

In general the spacial sound production from your AVR requires speakers to be placed at a height of at least ~7+ feet to down fire towards the seating position. As you might be aware, Dolby suggests 3 different types of speaker placement to reproduce the Atmos spacial sound.

1. By installing in ceiling speakers to create sound field just above your head. This gives true ceiling effects as the speakers down fire to create the exact sound what it is supposed to reproduce.
2. Next is the height speakers. This is meant for people who don't have provision or have difficulty placing in ceiling speakers. This would need Bookshelf or jewel cube speakers to be placed at 8 feet just above the front L & R and rear L & R in 45' tilted position. This would produce ~90 and above percentage of Atmos sound field and this would well suit for Auro 3D configuration.
3. Finally the up firing speaker which is pretty much a snake oil to showcase sound can also be up fired to bounce towards the listener. I have placed such a speaker right on top of the L & R bookshelf speakers before but experience was not all that great as compared to the 2nd option.

Best is to install the in ceiling speakers to have the ultimate Atmos experience. But a bookshelf speaker placed at the right height and tilted at 45 degree will give enough dispersion of sound creating Atmos experience.

Except the dipole speakers any BS speakers can be placed for Atmos say for down firing or heights. It is finally an individual's choice to go for the speaker considering what is possible for his room.

In case of option-2, how is jewel cube speaker different from bookshelf? Does it add any value to atmos experience?

 

[sriram_shol]

What you would hear in Atmos is approximately 1/5th of the overall sound stage. The whole movie watching is predominant in your LCR only and then surrounds and Atmos sound tracks. Not for every minute you would hear each and every nuances in Atmos.

In essence, jewel cube would be tiny in size and would fit for smaller rooms and you have numerous wall hooks available in the market to keep it tilted as per Atmos specification. If you have smaller footprint of bookshelves which can be wall mounted and tilted, both will do pretty much the same job (should answer your question!). If you already have an Atmos capable AVR you could try out with a used pairs of speakers as a trial and error to see how you like it sounding.

Meanwhile, if your can share your current system or upcoming system in mind, all FMs including me can guide you in the right direction.

 

[Love4sound]

I used small yamaha satellites for few months installed in my ceiling. I was able to get decent height effects. A decent book shelf speaker will do the job.You can also make a custom box and use car speakers or ceiling speakers and mount them. Refer the below threads.

Help with Atmos speakers in concrete ceiling

How is the Sonus 3540 performance? I have denon 2400 and using Dali zensor 3, zensor vokal nd zensor 1. I want to install some good speakers in my concrete ceiling for atmos. Please suggest me some models along with installation guide for concrete ceiling

www.hifivision.com

To suspend speaker's from concrete ceiling for Dolby Atmos / Dts X..

Scenario - Considering one of the best location to experience Atmos/ Dts X at home, is to have speakers in the ceiling.. But, most of us don't have the ability to put it there as it is concrete ceiling.. Thought is to suspend the in-ceiling speakers from ceiling using necessary hardware.. Any...

www.hifivision.com

 

[rajuisback]

Well i have 4 Klipsch R51m's mounted on the ceiling and my Friend has KEF's Ceiling speakers. I really don't find any difference between the 2 setups.

 

[sriram_shol]

Which is good for you. And how did you install R51M in the ceiling? Curious to know the mounting possibility. I am using R15M as surrounds.

 

[Ketan]

Hi, I'm planning to use my the LR and surround pairs from my old Onkyo 5105B home theater system. I've mounted the LR pair as front height for some time now. I need to check the correct angle, around 40 degrees to ensure its firing towards the seating position. I'm planning to mount the old surround as the rear height (or should I have bigger speakers from the LR pair on rear height!!) channel soon. Since my rear wall is not even and very close to the seating position, the angle that I create should be more than 45 degrees to ensure it fires towards the seating position.

I was here to figure out if special purpose atmos speakers (I have Dali Alteco C-1 in mind, its costly) are really needed or I can save some money on that and use the front and surround pairs from my old HT system and use them as front and rear height channels? Following is the specs I have from my old HTS.


HTP-518 5.1-CHANNEL HOME THEATRE SPEAKER SYSTEM SKF-518F 2-WAY BASS REFLEX FRONT SPEAKERS << Planning to use as front height channel

• 8 cm Cone Woofer
• 2.5 cm Balanced Dome Tweeter
• Max. Input Power: 130 W
• Magnetically Shielded

SKM-518S FULL-RANGE BASS REFLEX SURROUND SPEAKERS << planning to use as rear height channel

• 8 cm Cone
• Max. Input Power: 130 W
• Note: All speakers are gloss finished. They also feature an impedance of 8 Ω, color-coded speaker terminals and cable, wall-mounting capability.