Dolby was wrong! Place your Atmos speakers here instead, Performance over Aesthetics

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[Britishbandogge]

I have cut out 12 holes in my ceiling. I went from 2 speakers at 0°. Then 4 at +55° and -55°. Then 6 at +55°, 0°, -55° . (Based on recommendations from respected people on YouTube, Audioholics, Anthony Gremani, Home Theatre gurus etc.) Then I watched Techno Dad's atmos renderer videos. Which threw a spanner in the works.

So, I decided to make six extra holes that are in line with the bed layer. Lots of moving speakers, and crawling around the loft, and recalibration, and listening, and moving speakers, and crawling around the loft, and listening, and recalibration... on and on it went.

I think Channa is right. So thanks, Techno Dad, many more man hours later, it sounds right. Guess it's time to start filling in those original holes.🙄

[P-LOWN]

The come closer "I don’t care" was personal 😂😂

[Linkone]

Honestly, Channa is 💯 correct on this...he is basically describing an Auro3D setup. It's better than the Dolby recommendation and still works fine for Atmos.

[Jim-kzox]

Note position of speakers at 12:33 and 12:46 in the pro mixing room. Would it not be best to recreate that layout used in the studio to monitor the mix? Those speakers appear to fall within dolby instruction rather than following your suggestions here.

[jupyder]

I had a friend telling me about this concept while I was upgrading from a .2 overhead to a .4 and I thought it was very interesting. I then found your channel and downloaded your test video that had sounds going straight up and down from the base speakers and it clicked for me. I know have all four overhead speakers directly above the front and surround speakers and it sounds fantastic. Thanks for pushing this topic, it makes perfect sense. Now I have to redo my living room....half the fun right? Right guys?

[ZZ-ougp]

A reminder has been set ☺- You can do both by integrating design features so that they aid the sound and video, items in the room remain functional and also look nice and not like you are in a black coffin. I am glad you brought this subject up. Using common can get you results that deliver both, but of course if common sense was a currency we would all be rich. Love this video 👌

[marcuskazuya]

performance.

but just to say - i followed the prime elevation manual where it said to "place ypur height speakers as close as possible to the ceiling" and this is where your atmos tester revealed the defects. due to them being close to the ceiling AND the sidewalls (like in the DAR) they caused a lot of echo and completely messed up the directionality of the sound. so i moved it down and closer together - i had my wife hold the speaker up while listening to your tester and then decided on the position.

so i'd say yes on this proposal as a general guide but always.. test first!

[zombeat]

Moved speakers but moved them practically back where i had them..unless I am not fully understanding but I felt that the atmos speakers sound terrible in line with the surrounds. Having too close to the line of the surrounds you are hearing almost zero channel separation this way. Having the back atmos speakers literally above where you sit sounds absolutely incredible.

[Agent-fgol]

Dude, I had this same conversation talking to a buddy of mine when listening to demos. He wants me to set up his system and I was telling him why I recommend having the atmos speakers match the positions of the bed layer. He kept going back to the dolby charts and I kept explaining why the bed layer is so good at placing sound in the room and why having the top layer match that exactly would be best. Glad I'm not the only one that noticed this. Awesome video and keep up the good work man!

[offdacorner]

Performance all day every day. Attractive theater style seating combined with awesome lighting definitely grasps my attention. But beautiful video on a large screen combined with immersive sound is what blows me away.

[DarrenKrusi]

Watch the fireballs scene of Dungeons and Dragons near the end and tell me if it sounds right when the fireball hits the building up on the top left there.

[sparkiegaz]

13.2 does me, it took a while but base level are all at ear level once seated, my height speakers are all same level and the top speaker is above my seat and it blows me away.. 😊

[trastomania]

You are RIGHT. I have placed four atmos in the four corners aligned with the floor speakers and the Atmos sounds are BEST. I have placed at 45º and when a sound is in FRONT TOP, they sound from that point, not towards me.

The problem is that you say about these people chatting in forums that they think that are engineers or something else and place the diagrams of Dolby over all, and they cannot discute it.

I go to the BEST mix sound editing room here in Spain and there isn´t any theather that will mimic that experience that I feel, and that was about 14 years ago!. And they have placed the speakers LIKE YOU SUGGEST. A lot of them, of course, because want to mimic a theater enviroment (more of 30 speakers for sure).

Only when I add my humble four atmos speakers following my ideas, not the Dolby specs, I feel PART of that experience I sense.

So YES, you are RIGHT, sir!

[ericspear]

I just watched your video on my home theater system. I have six up firing speakers. My system pretty much followed your Atmos demo. Not exactly, but sounded pretty close. The sound seemed to go up the front wall and not towards me during those examples. The sound seemed to be pretty darn close to your demo so I'm pretty happy about that. I have a Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6 home theater system and tuned my system with your Spatial Audio Calibration Tool as best I could. Made a real difference in how my system sounds so thank you for that tool kit! It may not be a perfect system, but the Atmos is way better than my Bose 900 Soundbar system it replaced. I think it has more to do with having more power to bounce those sounds off the ceiling better and having six speakers to do it with.

[curtismariani]

Very interesting and makes total sense. I have a 7.1.4 system in my living room, so full of compromises. I had to go for in ceiling speakers for my hight channels so need to bring them in closer to be able to get the best out of them. I’m assuming that if you are advocating putting speakers in the corners, it would be better to use bookshelf sized speakers angled to the listener?

[midevil]

Finally!! I've been waiting for a video like this forever. Amazingly simple and logical topic. Thanks, Channa! 🍻

[baradhandhanapathy]

I totally agree with you. This is why I feel that in any given day Auro 3D is better than Dolby Atmos. The addition of an extra layer exponentially increases the intensity of immersion. I do reallt feel bad that Auro 3D doesn't get the credit it deserves. Dolby clearly has the edge through their aggressive marketing. Thank you for making this video, you have meticulously put together your careful observations.

[nonothing]

Great video! Your focus was more on the height speakers, but what do you think about the main bed layer? Shouldn't our 5/7 bed layer speakers be setup in a box format as well than instead of what dolby recommends? I've never understood why our rear or surround speakers should be so close to us in atmos.

I think the ideal is a square box room, you sit in the middle. Speakers in every corner, both at ear level and height level. Then a main center channel.

[tobyhines]

Great information Techno Dad.I'm still using The Yamaha Rx 583 for 5.2.2. I went 4 channel in 1973/4 with 8 track tapes, anyone remember the 4 channel FM broadcast You needed 2 FM tuners.

[Antimonkat]

The official atmos layout gives me original Dolby Surround vibes, like just put some speakers there to give you a vague sensation of height, and sound coming from above, and your suggestion is more of the placing sound accurately exactly where it's encoded to live.