4 or 6 Atmos Speakers? Which Provides the BEST Experience?

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[Boxkerp]

I have a small room with 6 atmos speakers. It's roughly 14 feet deep and 10 feet wide, (The space is really longer than 14 feet but the theater use ends at 14) I think 6 speakers works decently, I wouldn't call it revolutionary or even necessary but it works. I will say that there is only one seat in the theater(well futon couch until I get a theater chair). My 2 boys have moved out, my daughter is either at college, work or in her room. And my wife doesn't go in the theater, so there's only the sweet spot to worry about.

[johnmastroleo]

My room is 12x15. I'm running 13.2 with 6 atmos ceiling speakers without any issues at all. In fact, using the Dolby guide line, l was able to meet the proper spacing of the height speakers to the main listening position.
It all depends on where your main chair is positioned. I'll admit I'm at the minimum recommended distance at the back of the room.
Yes, if you have very wide dispersion speakers, this could cause problems, but you can tame a lot of that with wall dampen and speaker placement.
I've never listened to a single bass player on 13.2 channels, but to me, running a solo bass player like that would clearly be bloated. I use Auro 2D, so it removes the height speakers. In my room, I actually perfered the Auro 3d for music over Dolby or THX, but I went with 6 overhead speakers because I liked it better on movies.
I got tired of going back in forth when listening to 2 channel music and added a second system in my theater room. Magnapan 1.7i speakers.
I need a bigger house

[o.c.g.m]

I have 14x18.5 n I have a 9.2.6. Do what u want. Didn't think I would have proper chan separation. DEAD WRONG !!! My AVM 70 8k uses dolby surround mode/anthem cinema when not using atmos it sounds wonderful. Edit: downgraded to 7.1.6

[FURognar]

At 14 feet, its border line if 6 ceiling speakers would work.

You could set up Front Height and Rear Height on the front and back walls (they'll be about 40° from the center point of the room depending on ceiling height) and put a Top-Middle right in the middle of them, equidistant from the front and rear height. There should be 50° of separation between each ceiling pair, which is plenty. I would then place my seating just behind the center point of the room to avoid that middle null.

As far as static mixes stuck at 7.1.2 config, they are absolutely fine with Top-Middles on the mix. With 4 height channels, they just image between the front and rear pairs. There is not front to back movement from these types of mixes. When you have a Top-Middle pair, they will just play discretely from that pair. It doesnt change how the mix is presented very much at all. Same for a 7.14 mix. Active object mixes will be much better with 6 heights though

The main thing you need to do is add acoustic treatments to your walls and ceiling to reduce and diffuse reflections. Without those, there will be so many reflections, your audio will be that confusing mess the guys were talking about. But with proper acoustical treatments, all the sound objects should come out nice and clear and easily tracked in the soundfield.

[denniso]

I had to revisit this as i have installed an extra 2 atmos speakers going from 4 atmos channels to 6atmos channels in a 7.2.6 configuration . My living room is not that big at about 18 feet by 15 feet with 8 feet ceiling so not large at all. I have a single row seating area as its the living room. The middle heights (atmos) are now halfway between the front and back. Boy what a difference .! All the matrixing that was done by the front left and back left t atmos heights to create a middle left are now only in the middle left atmos speaker and the same for right . the middle height sounds are are now more distinct and i can hear the movement even better . So far i wish i would have done this sooner as i don't want to rewatch all my movies again. Detrimental its not ! thats rubbish. my Anthem AVM 70 maps it perfectly . Jonathan let us know how its worked out !!

[matthewdavis]

This was a good watch. I only have a 5.1 system but as you said "How can I take this further?"... I've been researching on whether to go to a .4 or .6 setup and based on this, I think .4 will be the sweet spot for me.

Thank you!

[gmsuarez]

If your system does Auro3D, the Voice of God makes sense. I have 6 for that porpuse. It works on my setup.

[bigk]

Trinnov has a good article "what is immersive sound". How I'm understanding it is that regardless of how many speakers you have, 2.0 or 9.4.6 and everything in between or more..., as long as you have a good processor/receiver you should get the immersive experience. Doesn't really say anything about a room size, witch you would think that it wouldn't really matter as long as you do room calibration with a quality processor/receiver. At the end of the day it's all about timing, levels, etc... not necessarily room size... Those formats like atoms/dtsx are designed to work with what you have, like tv speakers or all the way up to a dedicated home theater and leaves it up to your processor/receiver to do the "immersive" part of the movie with the information its given from the movie, well as long as the audio designer didn't cut corners to save money.

[traumadisaster]

Adding more speakers to the heights may be an indication that he is not enjoying the quantity and quality of what he is hearing up there due to the lazy atmos soundtracks. Like most people he's probably waiting to be wowed by that expenditure he staring at up there wondering when or if they will turn on. You get a handful of minutes of sound per movie and you start thinking hell maybe I don't have enough speakers up there I wonder if I will benefit from adding top middles. We need more resources spent during the soundtrack production, instead we get sound guys rushing it through and we're stuck with a mess at home. That's why I ended up with Auro3D and it's great for me.

[dan_hitchman]

I have six overhead speakers, and I can attest to the fact that some Disney 7.1.2 fixed bed Atmos tracks act weirdly (not getting into the whole discussion that Disney audio tracks normally suck anyway - they do). I was playing "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" on 4k Blu-ray and the two overheads come out of the Top Rear speakers rather than the Top Middle pair.

[voiceofreason]

Agree with Youthman ^^^ and others.

A 14x12 sized room is the size of my small bedroom converted to a mancave. I can visualize my space as a theater room but it would have only a couple of seats, max as I have large Klipsch CF-4 mains. It would be much easier to pull off if satellite sized speakers were used.

I would think that would be a good size for 5.2.2 as you would still be immersed in sound.

[Gene_Splicer]

So it sounds more an issue of the Atmos mixing vs an issue with speaker config? I've got 6 Klipsch THX 5002L I had planned on using in my 8.5' ceiling... maybe install them all but play with the RMC-1 configuration on "bad" mixes to use only 4? My basement room is 16 x 17 - front half at 8.5' then step down transition to 7' drop ceiling... main seat 3' forward of that height transition. Unless I completely rebuild the house, that's how it is lol

[bingdong]

I disagree with this as i have tried 4 and 6. No problem having a seven or nine level bed layer in the same size room? To each there own but my room is smaller than his and i love my six atmos speakers. Dont knock it till you try it. Lots of info out there discouraging 6 over 4 but my real world results completely disagree.

[redz]

Good video. I’m still old school and running 5.4 and the .4 isn’t atmos that’s sub.

I’m considering going atmos but only 4 since my room is 15x16 and one row of seating

[mrbigjl]

I'm in KC and I would love to check his setup. I need ideas.

[TheJustina]

My new room allows for space to instal any type number or type of height channels I want… I’m struggling to decide if my system should be 7.6 with 4 ceiling channels & 2 front heights to create wall of sound… I’ve never had ceiling speakers, my systems of old had been at its peak 7.2.4 with just rear and front heights.. ugh

[georgefremd]

If in ceilings not an option can you get good atmos sound by using heights installed on the wall

[dirkluchtman]

Hi would 6 height speakers make sense in an Auro-Atmos Hybrid setup? You use the front and rear heights for Auro and in Atmos you use all 6 (directly overhead as the third set of atmos).

[frankvee]

Definitely don't need 6 Atmos speakers in a room that size, and I agree with Ryan, it would actually be detrimental.

[TomBartol]

i got 7.2.6, and i watch Civil war today, back atmos speakers did not work?