I added front 'height' speakers for Atmos

[Timothy Bucktu]

I've got a Yamaha RX-A1060 Avantage amp and have had the usual 5.1 setup for a while. It's all great, but having those additional F.Presence speaker connections left unused has always bothered me, as it seemed a shame to be missing out on 'something'.

So anyway - last week, Wife was out, so I took the opportunity and ran the wires up to a pair of ceiling speakers. I've got them mounted roughly 75cm ahead of the front speakers as an attempt to fill the void between the fronts and rears.
Since enabling the extra speakers, my amp now switches to 'Atmos' for most stuff on Netflix and many of my films.

Having re-watched several films I am really impressed. The extra speakers really lift the audio and really help to fill the gap between the front soundstage and the rear. It's very close to a decent cinema experience. Pretty amazing in fact.
I recommend Max Max Fury Road. The opening scene is a proper wow moment! and Ready Player One, especially the car chase...amazing.

I had a demo of some upward firing speakers, and no. This is just a gimmick. The sound stage is NOTHING like having some proper speakers pointing at you. Watching a film with a Dolby Digital HD or True HD encoded 7.1 soundtrack is the same as Atmos.

I'm now contemplating adding mid speakers to fill the gap between front and rear even more. I've got that extra set of 'surround back' sockets, and I'm wondering how it'll perform as a mid/side speaker option?

[BenB91]

As a general consesus, the more speakers the better for home cinema.

I have a Yamaha RX-A860 and I'm also running 5.1.2. For my atmos speakers, I use Monitor Audio ceiling speakers and very happy with them.

In future years, I will uppgrade to a 7.1.4 system, which will include changing the amp to a Denon.

[donkmeister]

When I was doing our living room a few years back, when I was working out the in-wall/ceiling cabling I initially thought "5.1 is enough. And who actually NEEDS 4k?!"

By the time I had finished I had gone for 5.1.4 and fibre optic HDMI cables to the projector I'm now wondering if I can get some sort of lag-free wireless amp so I can go to 7.1.4 without trailing speaker cables.

I have the Denon AVCX3700; 9 channels of amplification but can process up to 11.2, so fortunately I can do it without upgrading my receiver if I go in that direction.

I would suggest that if you haven't already done so, look at the Dolby website for the guide on speaker placement - you may find certain configurations can be accommodated better by your room than others.

[clockworks]

I just replaced my 12 year old Denon receiver with an up to date model, X2800.

The retailer had a bundle offer, a pair of Polk XT "toppers" for £30 extra. Amp was a very good price, so I went for it.

Since I'm using a Monitor Audio SB3 passive soundbar for the front channels, I couldn't put the Polk speakers in the usual place on top of the left and right fronts. I opted to sit them on the sub, which is in the front left corner of the room. Left one pointing down the room, right one pointing across the room.

I wasn't expecting much, but it made a massive difference on Atmos content. They look a bit rubbish where they are, so I'll probably swat them for a pair of ceiling speakers, positioned as Dolby suggests.

Current surround speakers are Monitor Audio 165 ceiling mounts, sub is from Quad.

Should I just get another pair of the 165s, or go for something a bit smaller, like Kef Ci130ER, or Monitor Audio CS160R?