Help me with Atmos placement please!

[peep6543]

I have been using the Upfiring Onkyo speakers for a couple months and now I am ditching them for ceiling Atmos speakers. I took an awful photo pointed up at the ceiling to hopefully get some guidance on placement.

The rear two circles indicate placement directly above my sofa, however they are fairly close to each rear, about 5 ft. The front two circles are a bit more centered over the viewing area but point directly down to where our floor rug is. Will I lose Atmos affect by having them too close to the rears yet properly over our heads? Or will I lose more by moving them to their own dedicated region of the room yet not directly over us?

My gut is telling me to put them closer to the forward location than the rear.

FWIW I am using Micca M-8C from Amazon. Fixed tweeters.

[Zhorik]

Considering you are using speakers with fixed tweeters (you sure about this, as amazon says it has pivotable tweeter?), it would be better to place the speakers slightly ahead of and slightly behind your sofa / listening position (assigned as top front and top rear).

I presume your side (and rear) speakers are behind the sofa.

Also can't tell from the picture, but your ceiling speakers should be in line with or inside the left and right channels.

[peep6543]

Maybe I skipped over that part on the description. I had thought for that price point they would be fixed. Pivotable is preferred.

I am only putting in two speakers, not four. Each pair of circles on the mock-up is either/or not and.

So you think they should be closer to the display than directly overhead the sofa? That was my thought also

[Zhorik]

If using just two pairs, it is advisable to place them a foot or two ahead of the sofa and assign them as top middle.

[peep6543]

Again 'two pairs' would indicate four speakers. I am installing one pair, two speakers total. My receiver only has surround height L and R as the channels for Atmos. I will put them just slightly ahead of of the seating. Thanks!

[Gravy4547]

You could always have enclosed speakers mounted to your ceiling. So you could move them in the event of improper placement. Or at minimum do a mock up so you are sure about your placement with your enclosed speakers then when you are happy with the placement, cut your holes for your in ceiling speakers. Patching a couple of screw holes is much easier than patching a 6 in circular hole.

Your room looks standard, I would go with the 2-3 feet in front of the listening position as Dolby recommends.

I have some polk OWM 3's, slim profile speakers mounted to my ceiling as my top fronts. No complaints about their performance, no sound leakage upstairs either.

[peep6543]

I'm thinking the 2-3 feet in front of the sitting position is about perfect a well. My stud finder shows an opening in exactly that spot. The dolby recommendation is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

I really like the Polk's as well. When I upgraded our equipment I choose the whites to blend in a bit with the walls, similar to the white ceiling speakers.

[TheZoof]

That is where I put mine. 2' in front of listening position.

[peep6543]

Got them in yesterday! Thanks for the input, specifically having them just inside of the front L and R. I had no idea of that. Luckily for me I had a rafter gap perfectly 2-3' in front of the sofa. Cut the sheetrock holes slightly small and kept shaving until they fit in fairly snug. Not snug to put any pressure on components, but so they could hang without the anchors if needed. I did not put an enclosure over the back but I did move any dust and loose insulation a foot away as the instructions said.

I only had a few minutes to test before I had to go but they sound MUCH better than the Onkyo pair. Listened to a few minutes of the Atmos app on Xbox, Everest, Blade Runner 2049, and Spotify including Queens of the Stone Age and Pink Floyd.

Excuse our mess... You can see how forward they are based on the one closest to the window. They are in line with each other but tough to tell given my camera angle.