Front Height (on actual bookshelves): Bookshelf or Atmos Upfiring? (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

I currently have a basic 5.1 setup running through a Sony STR-DN1080, and want to add front height speakers. Here's the room:

I plan to put the front heights on top of those two tower bookshelves, which are exactly 6' tall. The ceiling is around 9.5'-10' total, and viewing distance is just over 10' from the screen. The height speakers would be pretty much lined up with the screen. I'm debating putting a pair of up-angled Atmos speakers up there (like the Sony SSCSEs), or maybe just another pair of bookshelf speakers.

What are folks' opinions on that choice? Would an Atmos signal bounced off the ceiling from there be worth the extra cost over a pair of similar bookshelf speakers simply aimed out into space? I hear mixed things about the effectiveness of bounced ceiling channels, but people usually just stick those on top of their fronts.

(And yes, actual in-ceiling speakers are a future possibility, but we're not going there just yet. )

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Update: I found some speaker wire in the back of my closet, and remembered that I still had two of my old mains (one of which is starting to crackle), so I stuck 'em up there. They do seem to open things up a bit, but I haven't had much chance to really test it out yet.