Gotcha. I'd venture that the best to worst choices are, in order:
Direct in ceiling
SVS Prime Elevation https://www.svsound.com/products/prime-elevation
That weird cabinet thing you are noodling
Upfiring
I say that not having heard the elevations.
Sam
Yeah SVS has something even better if that’s what you are thinking, called Prime Elevation. But wall mount Atmos are a compromise too. The sound is supposed to be directly overhead not from off in some corner somewhere.
Seems I’ll advised to make a critical judgement about the effect without having done a 5 minute calibration. As I said the effect is subtle but if it’s not doing anything at all for you something is wrong.
If your choice is 7.1 versus 5.1.2 you should try both with calibration
Andrew Jones, Sony and Klipsh. Whatever you can get for $100. Don’t over spend. The effect is nice (I have 2 rigs of them) but isn’t really laser focused discrete sound you can pinpoint until you go full fat 4+ downfiring