Question on an Atmos layout (1 Viewer)

[Marc K.]

Hi guys, I'm pretty new to this, and was hoping for some advice.
I'm having a home built, and the builder is allowing me go in before the walls are closed and run low voltage for a home theater. now, when i say home theater, it's nothing like most of the projects on this forum. it's basically a family room where i'm just trying to enhance the sound as much as possible.
so here's my question. the room is an open floor plan, with no wall behind the seating position. just a front wall and one side. so my plan was to go with a 5.1 or 7.1 system with in-ceiling speakers for the surround and rears since in-wall is not an option. I spoke to an AV guy who's telling me to add 2 (preferably 4) atmos speakers in the ceiling as well. i did some research though, and most of what i see indicates that if any of the speakers are already in the ceiling, then atmos speakers are pretty much a waste since the sound is already coming from above.
having said that, what would you guys recommend? am i wasting time and money by adding atmos speakers? unfortunately there is no way to get rear speakers at ear level since my wife will not allow speaker stands in the middle of the room!
Also, since the wife hasn't put a cap on how many speakers i can put in the ceiling, should i go with 5.1 or 7.1. Basically i'm trying to figure out of i should go with 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, or 7.1.4. given the layout.
thank you guys for the help!

 

[DigitalDawn]

You are correct. You cannot have both "speaker level" and Atmos channels in the ceiling.

Because of the lack of walls in your space you are better off foregoing Atmos and concentrating on 7.1 or 5.1. You can easily install surround channels in the ceiling.

What are your room dimensions (WDH)?

Where were you planning on putting the front channel speakers? Also, what's your speaker budget, including sub(s)?

 

[Sam Posten]

Can you consider putting speakers on drop poles from the ceiling?

 

[Marc K.]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've attached a room layout to this post. hopefully I did that correctly. to give you an idea of the size, from the left wall that the tv is on to the right wall (which is the kitchen cabinets wall) is 33'. As you can see, the other way (to the left if you're facing the tv) is wide open. the drawing makes it look like there may be a wall around the dining room table but it's just columns. the ceilings are 9'.

As for the front channel speakers, I was planning on putting them on the front wall (since there's a wall there) with the center channel below the mounted tv.

For a budget, I didn't really set one, although I do have some equipment I've been considering. For the speakers, I was looking at Polk RC-80 ceiling and RC85i wall. I've recently started to consider the 70RT ceiling and 65RT wall (or even the 265RT), although those appear to be more than double the price than the RC's. So I'm a little up in the air on that. The reviews appear to be very good for both, and I don't know if the RT line is that much better than the RC to justify such a substantial increase. Any advise on that would be appreciated as well!
As for the center channel i was looking at the polk 255c-rt and for the sub an SVS SB-2000.
regarding drop poles from the ceiling... to be quite honest i'm not sure what that is. if they're fixed and can't be retracted, the Mrs. would never go for that! if they can be retracted (I saw a youtube video on that), that's probably a much bigger project than I'm capable of taking on.
hopefully that's everything you guys were looking for in terms of additional info. again, i appreciate any help at all on this!!

 

[Marc K.]

Hi guys, sorry... one more question.
i was getting ready to order a about 800' of speaker wire (I'm actually doing home theaters in 2 rooms, along with some speakers thru-out the house for music), and i came across this product from monoprice
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2816
its a 500' roll of CL2 rated 14awg speaker wire for $136. i was originally going to order from another company (not sure I'm supposed to mention the name on here, but it's a very well known supplier) that charges more than double for their version of the wire, which appears to be identical. Now, I admit, I don't know much about this and this other product may be far superior to the monoprice and I just don't know.
Am i making a mistake by going with the monoprice product, or is it perfectly sufficient and I can put the savings towards better speakers? if there is any advantage to the better wire, I want to spend the money. I don't want to cut corners on this. but if the product is exactly the same obviously i'd rather go with the more affordable option.
thanks!

 

[JohnRice]

Get the Monoprice. Any reason not to just go with 12ga instead of 14?

 

[JohnRice]

BTW, my smaller systems are all Polk, and I'm in the process of changing them to ELAC Debut 2.0 models. Far more musical and significantly better imaging, IMO. They need a good 40 hours of break-in, so don't judge them out of the box.

 

[Marc K.]

Get the Monoprice. Any reason not to just go with 12ga instead of 14?

Thanks John. as far as the 12 vs 14, no good reason at all. i was told that 12 is overkill for what i'm doing, and that it may be too thick to connect to some components. while that didn't make much sense to me (I have no intention of buying garbage components), it scared me enough to shy away. I take it i should go with 12awg?

 

[JohnRice]

Only the wall plates need to accept the 12ga wire. The connection between them and the equipment can be a smaller gauge. You won't typically use CL2 wire from the wall to the components. You can, but there's no need to.