Dolby Atmos Speakers?

[N Boros]

I think Dave is talking about a different context as far as the limited vertical dispersion. It doesn't matter as much as far as everyone sitting down (though being at slightly different heights) having basically the same experience, even if you have two rows of seating with a riser for the second row. But, now with immersive audio we would like to be able to locate an object at an elevated position above us at any angle or direction. This is actually a much more difficult task. We don't just want to locate objects in a plane but in half of a sphere above us. Furthermore, the wide dispersion that was helping us do this in the plane, is no longer a help, since vertically we have a more narrow dispersion. My point is that having more in-ceiling speakers will make less of a gap to fill in, so that hopefully there aren't many "gaps" where objects above can't be precisely located. This is along the lines of why THX recommends two pairs of overhead speakers for immersive audio.

It is a hard sell for me too, the immersive audio thing. With audio not getting nearly as much care and attention as video gets and the problem only getting worse, as far as movies and TV. With more and more streaming, I don't know if we will get lossless audio, let alone immersive audio. I hope I'm wrong about this though.

[yesplease]

Another vote for the HTM-200se as ceiling speakers. I have 4 and they do a fantastic job. Here's what I did:

http://imgur.com/a/uw095

"Not sure if you have attic access, but I'm currently installing 4 HTM-200s as tops for atmos. The two inserts are not in the middle of the speaker, so I didn't trust flush mounting them on the ceiling because 3/4 of the weight would essentially be functioning as a lever. I'm sure they would be just fine, but I'm a big fan of overkill.

I added 2 hanger bolts at the same distance from the edge as the top inserts. I didn't want to penetrate the back of the speaker, so I only drilled 1/2" deep and put the screws in .43" deep. I used 2 threaded rods for the inserts (which for some reason are M6 not 1/4-20 on all 4 speakers).

On another note, my initial impression of adding the tops (TF/TR) in my 5.2.4 is amazing! Sound all around and I don't miss the rears one bit. It's like going from 2.1 to 5.1. The dolby upmixer is also phenomenal.

They blend perfectly with the RAAL towers and horizon. IMHO, they are excellent atmos speakers. "

[Blue Dude]

Another vote for the HTM-200se as ceiling speakers. I have 4 and they do a fantastic job. Here's what I did:

http://imgur.com/a/uw095

Thanks very much for this post. I totally stole your idea for ceiling mounting 2 HTM-200SE's as top middles (2 more are on angled ceiling mounts as top fronts), but I made some changes. I didn't install the additional threaded rods for symmetrical mounting, and I used hex bolts instead of threaded rods.

I created a template of the speaker back on graph paper to correctly place where the holes would be drilled (2 for mounting and one for the speaker wire). Then I drilled small pilot holes to make it easier to place the backer boards in the the attic.

I put in 22"x1"x6" boards between the trusses where I wanted to mount the speakers, and used 2" L-brackets to hold them in place, mainly to keep the boards from popping up while pushing up on the mounting bolts from below. The weight of the speakers is primarily supported by the drywall, but the load is widely distributed. Once the boards were in place, I drilled the final holes through the drywall and the boards.

Instead of threaded rods, I bought 150mm long M6 hex bolts and M6 wing nuts. The wing nuts were spun close to the top of the bolt to near the hex head, the wings oriented toward the head, with a washer on after, then dropped through the mounting hole to the room below. The wing nut rests on the washer and supports the weight of the speaker while the bolts are threaded into the mounting holes on the speaker and the speaker wire is attached. Once the bolt is started, you can secure it to the speaker by driving the hex head a few turns with a socket wrench. Then, your build partner can hold the speaker in its final position on the ceiling while you spin down the wing nuts from the attic to hold it in place permanently. Even with the mounting holes off center, I found that the speakers would hold completely flush with no sagging. You can't tell afterward which side was secured. Total cost: about $25 and a few hours of trial and error.