Thank you for hanging in there with me. Appreciate that a lot!

Thank you! That’s the thing I find weird. Everyone knew from the days of THX that of you didn’t have the back surrounds, THX would create a virtual surround back. Same is true of Dolby and DTS formats. Everyone knew back then that the sound on those speakers is not lost, it’s only carried in the nearest speaker. For some reason with Dolby Atmos folks started to think if you don’t have the back surrounds or the appropriate number of height speakers, that activity is lost. But no, it’s just that you don’t hear it in that precise location. With back surrounds specifically you still get back surround sound in a virtual way if the they are placed correctly and the trims are set correctly.

lol good point! unless she was wearing dolby atmos headphones!

Agree

I have front/rear heights plus top middle and find it more immersive than just top front/rear in-ceiling. I think middle heights with a top front/rear does provide more immersive sound but only if you have multiple rows of seats. Just my thoughts on this. Not saying one is better than other for other rooms and setups.

@@magnoliamo is sound coming from all Six sepeakers or mainly top middle ;)? What AMP so you have?

@@texxhexxmm it depends on the atmos mix. Gravity, Mad Max Fury Road, for example have dynamic Atmos mixes and all six height speakers utilized and sound moves through them. Then there are other movies where it’s primarily the front and rear heights with little to nothing coming from the top middles.

It depends on the sound design. Some movies have static overhead sound. But there are movies such Gravity and Aqua-man where objects move across all speakers.

Dolby Atmos is recorded in a 7.1.4 format. If you only have one row of seating then the .4 should suffice, but if you have multiple rows of seating then you may want to consider .6 Atmos channels.

Thanks for the comment. Ideally if you can install 6 height speakers and have the space for back surrounds then go with 7.2.6. If you are sitting against a wall or don’t have enough space to make back surrounds work properly then 5.2.6 would work.

All Dolby Atmos material is recorded in 7.1.4. If you duplicate 7.1.4 layout according to Dolby specs then you’re going to hear it as it was intended in the studio. If you have a larger room with multiple rows of seating then I would think about a larger format like 9.1.6

@@PanzerMagnet Thanks for the comment. I have heard that movies are recorded in 7.1.4. Based on my research, and I posted a video about that earlier, I am not convinced. I installed wide channels and there are some movies that have discrete object placement in the wide channels and discrete object placement in a 6 channel height setup. It’s not “just the processor” spreading the sound to the additional channels. Again, not disputing what you are saying, instead, going off what I found during experimentation with various configurations.

Thank you for the question. Checkout this video that I did on angles related to the height speakers. Dolby Atmos In-Ceiling Speaker Setup and Angles | Is the Dolby recommendation accurate? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p7FdZtyYqKzbaZs.html What processor do you have? On Marantz and Denon you cannot select top fronts and top middle in a 4 height speaker setup. It needs to be Top Fronts and Top Rears, or Front and Rear height. I would check to see if you can do Top front and Rear Heights. Just add height speakers to the rear wall.

@@magnoliamo Thank you for your kind reply. I'm thinking to upgrade to Denon AVC3700 and maybe I will choose a top rear and front height because of the room size constraint.

I have tried the Auro-3D upmixer on my Marantz 8805A with Dolby Atmos and plain vanilla Dolby True-HD and Dolby Digital and it sounds great. Caveat is that you must setup the height speakers as front and rear heights. If you use in-ceiling configuration with top front and top rear then the option is not there.

​@@magnoliamoSurround height and Front height has to be chosen

@@texxhexxmm with the latest firmware update you can upmix using Auro-3D even with top fronts and rears.

The pivoting tweeter on the ceiling speakers are not angled to the listening position. Are you able to pull the couch into the room at all?