Getting ready to upgrade to Atmos

[antimatter]

Hello people,
I am getting ready to upgrade my system to handle Atmos & X. I just was looking for some in put on what I am thinking of going with. I was going to grab the Pioneer elite Sc-95. I was also just grab the monoprice non logo amp at I think it was 100 or 150 per channel (2) for my fronts. My system is currently bic acoustitech newer pl-980s and surround pl-66. I was thinking of adding 4 more pl-66 for my heights. The other option is I have 4 infinity bookshelf infinity 363 or 362 I'm not sure they are with a system I do not use as much. What is your guys opinion on how I should handle this. Intergrate the infinity as either height or surrounds or keep everything matching? Also I'm pretty much sold on the pioneer but opinions and recommendations welcome on that as well.
Thank you,
Jay H.

[antimatter]

Based on further research to put forth better sound I am leaning towards not giving 150-300 watts to 2 speaker but 120 to 5 with an outlaw. I was wondering seeing as my receiver will give more watts per channel I was going to use it to power my front 3 and rear/side 3 and amp back 1 and height 4. Would you agree?

[Gravy4547]

FYI, ABT electronics in Glenview is having a customer appreciation sale next weekend (11th, 12th). Its on Milwaukee just north of Golf Mills. Be prepared it is going to be crowded as F%#@!!! Or go early right when it opens.

They have a 9 channel Denon on sale for around 1000. If it were me upgraded to Atmos, I would bag that one.

[antimatter]

Ok thank you I will definitely look at abt. Thank you for the heads up. I hope my taxes are here so I can take part in that.

[bakntim]

Be careful mounting those PL-66's. They are a heavy box with mounts designed for walls not ceilings. Unless you are planning to mount high and angle down. I had your exact same speakers, PL-980's and PL-66's. Good stuff. Also, Acoustech line are horn tweeter based so mixing them with the Infinity's is not ideal although most modern receivers are very good at matching and calibrating speakers these days so if you do have to mix brands it should do fine. One last thing, and this may not apply to your height speaker configuration, but I believe Pioneer receiver's do not recognize the Front Height or Rear Height positions in an Atmos layout in case you were thinking of using those positions as part of your heights layout. Not sure if that even matters but just dropping some info.

[antimatter]

Originally Posted by bakntim

Be careful mounting those PL-66's. They are a heavy box with mounts designed for walls not ceilings. Unless you are planning to mount high and angle down. I had your exact same speakers, PL-980's and PL-66's. Good stuff. Also, Acoustech line are horn tweeter based so mixing them with the Infinity's is not ideal although most modern receivers are very good at matching and calibrating speakers these days so if you do have to mix brands it should do fine. One last thing, and this may not apply to your height speaker configuration, but I believe Pioneer receiver's do not recognize the Front Height or Rear Height positions in an Atmos layout in case you were thinking of using those positions as part of your heights layout. Not sure if that even matters but just dropping some info.

I was planning on hanging the off the wall just below ceiling angled down. If the do not recognize height how do you use atoms as wide channels? Trying to figure this out before I make a mistake. Is there a way to get pioneer to manually observe them as height channels? Thank you for the heads up. I see it is front wide and back wide. Is that going to make a huge difference? If so is there a better receiver looking to spend between 8-1000 maybe 1100. I was getting a refurb/used sc-95. Just haven't been impressed with Onkyo's new lines. They seem like they are cutting back and wanted to try something new even if owned by Onkyo. This seems to give quality with output power. The dennon I've had I wasn't impressed with. Thank you again

[bakntim]

Denon and Marantz receivers are quite good these days. Not sure if you had a bad experience with an older one. They feature lots of different Atmos speaker configurations and layouts and have a very good room calibration software. If memory serves, Pioneer utilizes the Top Front, Top Middle, and Top Rear Atmos speaker layouts. When you say Front Wide and Back Wide, that must be a term native to Pioneer as I don't recognize it as a standard Atmos designation. Front Wide to me is referring to additional ear level speakers just outside the main Left and Right speakers. I sure hope I am not confusing things further. It may help to read through the SC-95 online manual to get better clarification and answers. All the best

[antimatter]

Originally Posted by bakntim

Denon and Marantz receivers are quite good these days. Not sure if you had a bad experience with an older one. They feature lots of different Atmos speaker configurations and layouts and have a very good room calibration software. If memory serves, Pioneer utilizes the Top Front, Top Middle, and Top Rear Atmos speaker layouts. When you say Front Wide and Back Wide, that must be a term native to Pioneer as I don't recognize it as a standard Atmos designation. Front Wide to me is referring to additional ear level speakers just outside the main Left and Right speakers. I sure hope I am not confusing things further. It may help to read through the SC-95 online manual to get better clarification and answers. All the best

Ok yea you are correct with the pioneer. I was looking at the Yamaha-A3050 and it looks to be front/rear height. My question is if helicopters or jets/missles are flying over head with the pioneer will it recreate the illusion they are overhead? Or am I better with a Yamaha 3050 with front rear height? And I will also be looking into Dennon and marantz as well. Just have a great deal on the pioneer. I'm willing to spend more for what I want. Thank you.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by antimatter

Ok yea you are correct with the pioneer. I was looking at the Yamaha-A3050 and it looks to be front/rear height. My question is if helicopters or jets/missles are flying over head with the pioneer will it recreate the illusion they are overhead? Or am I better with a Yamaha 3050 with front rear height? And I will also be looking into Dennon and marantz as well. Just have a great deal on the pioneer. I'm willing to spend more for what I want. Thank you.

The Yamaha can do that ....even without using Atmos - I know, my RX-A3020 pans the airplane (turbo prop) near the beginning of Transformers 4 from the rear right - to overhead and then between the center and left front channels! It's using its proprietary DSP HD3, and with the Yamaha - you can apply that to an already impressive Atmos! The pioneer elite sc-95 is a beast also. The Denon's and Marantz have Audyssey on their side (I'm using a miniDSP for bass eq so it doesn't matter with me). The Marantz sr-6010/11 sounds very good! However the 95 and the 3050 are both 7.1.4 capable.

[jrauseo]

Just my two cents, but for Atmos height effects, I haven't found a better speaker than the SVS Prime Elevation series. https://www.svsound.com/products/prime-elevation

They are very solid, sound great, are versatile enough to sit on a bookshelf or hang on a wall, and they don't use a ceiling bounce or any other gimmick, which doesn't work as well as the downward firing speaker these guys have.

[antimatter]

Originally Posted by jrauseo

Just my two cents, but for Atmos height effects, I haven't found a better speaker than the SVS Prime Elevation series. https://www.svsound.com/products/prime-elevation

They are very solid, sound great, are versatile enough to sit on a bookshelf or hang on a wall, and they don't use a ceiling bounce or any other gimmick, which doesn't work as well as the downward firing speaker these guys have.

I'll look into those as well. I have svs subs so I know they make great products. Thank you.

[jrauseo]

Originally Posted by antimatter

I'll look into those as well. I have svs subs so I know they make great products. Thank you.

Definitely - I have had my Elevation speakers since the day they were released and they have been great. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions and I can get you in touch with someone at SVS.

[antimatter]

Hey I just received my pioneer sc-95 and for some reason I have 2 issues. A hiss coming from the speakers and also I cannot get the surround backs to work. I am only able to run 5 speakers. I hear a hiss in the rear speakers so they are getting power but when I run setup or Macc it will not produce sound. Any help??? Please.

Never mind they sent me a piece of sh*t Now to deal with the bull of exchanging it.

[antimatter]

It's been a minute I was wondering what people's opinion on doing something like this with the Acoustitech PL-66. I've seen that in articles people say most ceilings are too short to effectively use actual speakers i.e. Bookshelf for atoms that in ceiling are better for recreation of sound. I see that a lot of atoms speakers have that angled speaker look as does the PL-66. So what if I were to place them on the front and rear speakers like that angled up. Would that work better in a 10-12 ft ceiling than hanging them off the wall angled towards the listening area. Thank you for your help.

[antimatter]

Here's a pic of the speaker for reference. And the rear is just a port for bass extension