Distance atmos height speakers (1 Viewer)

[MightyWez]

Hi all,

I'm trying to upgrade my 5.1 setup to a 5.1.2 setup. I'm new to Atmos (and no sound expert in general) so excuse my ignorance .

The room I have doesn't allow for in-ceiling speakers, nor on-ceiling from the side as I usually see in Atmos setups online because it's a open room. It just wouldn't fit.

I was planning to add 2 Atmos height speakers that have a slight output angle downwards (21degrees)

I was wondering what would be the best distance between the listening area and the speakers? Can I place them as high as possible above the front speakers (which fits best), or is it better to move them closer to the listening area?

Distance between listening area and front speakers = 220cm (7.2ft)
Ceiling height = 260cm (8.5ft)

Thanks a lot for any advice

 

[Old Dog]

I have just been experimenting with height speakers, so no expert either! All I will say is, in a perfect world, dedicated cinema room / starting from scratch, anything is possible and getting close to perfection is highly likely / probable. In many situations however, that luxury does not exist and compromises have to be made and that is where the fun (uncertainty) starts.
It seems you can attach front heights to the rear wall ok, but not sure how you would move them closer to the listening position if you cannot attach to / in the ceiling? (I would expect this to be better).
Usually, wall mounted front heights would be positioned above the mains, although having them slightly farther apart could perhaps be of benefit, I think. So long as you can get speakers within a reasonable vacinity of where they are intended to be, I believe benefits will be gained.
I had a similar issue and got around it by placing front height speakers on a pair of 1.7m tall cabinets (already positioned left and right of my mains). Doing so brought the front heights slightly further away from the wall and also slightly further apart than the front mains, but not really into the room - they are still a greater distance from the listening position than my main fronts. The really great advantage was I didn't have to make any holes nor have cables running up walls. Instead the cables are nicely hidden behind the cabinets. Ideal, perhaps not, but at least a positive solution to achieving Atmos capability in my situation.