Hi,

I've been demoing GoldenEar speakers for a new 7.x.4 ATMOS home theater. I've come to a preliminary speaker package with the dealer of a pair of Triton References, a SuperCenter XXL, a SuperSub XXL, and eight Invisa HTR-7000s. I've been reading some of the other threads, and seen the 30 deg angle of the 7000's, and saw one recommendation of being 12' away from the listening position on a 10' ceiling. I have a 7'-2" ceiling, so that would be roughly 8'-6" away - and I just don't have that kind of space. (See diagram.) I also haven't seen a recomendation for ATMOS distance (I believe the earlier distances were for rear surrounds). Also, the manual recommends a 12" keep-out zone from walls - I have a plenum that drops the ceiling to 6'-5" (so a 9" drop), would that count as an actual wall (or shrink the keep-out zone)? That would give me flexibility on the ATMOS/rear surrounds.

Is this just not going to work for my room because the 7000's are too close to the listening positions? See attached diagram. I need to figure this out today, the dealer wants me to put down a deposit to lock in "special pricing."

Thanks.

Hi, Auz

Good questions.

The four 7000 height speakers will work great as ceiling heights.

From your room diagram, it looks like you’don’t have enough space to position the 7000’s as surrounds at enough distance from the listening positions to have them”present” at ear level.

Do you have wiring options to use, say, in Wall MPX’s for surrounds? Those would keep the surrounds at ear level.

Probably wouldn’t be the end of the world if 7000’s as surrounds presented those channels more as height, but not as good as if you can use in walls for surrounds to preserve the true Atmos sound envelope.

Hope this helps.

Great system you’re planning!

Good luck!

Rick

rjohn79395 wrote: Hi, Auz

Good questions.

The four 7000 height speakers will work great as ceiling heights.

From your room diagram, it looks like you’don’t have enough space to position the 7000’s as surrounds at enough distance from the listening positions to have them”present” at ear level.

Do you have wiring options to use, say, in Wall MPX’s for surrounds? Those would keep the surrounds at ear level.

Probably wouldn’t be the end of the world if 7000’s as surrounds presented those channels more as height, but not as good as if you can use in walls for surrounds to preserve the true Atmos sound envelope.

Hope this helps.

Great system you’re planning!

Good luck!

Rick

Is there a formula to determine distance required to present at ear height given a ceiling height? Should I just use the 30 degrees angle? (i.e., floor distance = sin(30) * (ear to speaker height) ? )

I did think of the MPX, but as you can see from the diagram, if I don't move the couch then I only have a wall on one side - would it make sense to build a pseudo-wall bump-out on the other side? But then the distance of speaker to the MLP would be different on each side, unless I build bump-outs on both sides. It's a bit of a problem with the assymetrical layout I have. The rears might have more flexibility, especially if that 9" plenum is not counted as a wall, so I can gain that extra 12" back.

What’s the construction of the rear plenum? I.E. can you wire/install speakers in that plenum wall?.if so, and I guess that’s what I assumed, you may find that one pair of surrounds, MPX’s or otherwise, mounted some outboard in that plenum walk, would work just fine.

I have a 5.1.4 set-up, where the surrounds are location wise more like rear surrounds (limitations in my room lay-out). Works for me.

Re formulas for calculating distances required for 7000’s to present at ear level, your formula is probably a good approximation. Moderator Dude can comment if there’s a better one.
In any case, I think the distances you have to work with for use as surrounds won’t get you to ear level sound with 7000’s. Again, maybe not the end of the world.

I guess we all have to find ways to make our systems work in the room spaces we have (unless we have the luxury of designing a HT, room and all, from scratch).

Whatever you choose, there are no bad combinations of GEt speakers!

Rick

rjohn79395 wrote: What’s the construction of the rear plenum? I.E. can you wire/install speakers in that plenum wall?.if so, and I guess that’s what I assumed, you may find that one pair of surrounds, MPX’s or otherwise, mounted some outboard in that plenum walk, would work just fine.

I have a 5.1.4 set-up, where the surrounds are location wise more like rear surrounds (limitations in my room lay-out). Works for me.

Re formulas for calculating distances required for 7000’s to present at ear level, your formula is probably a good approximation. Moderator Dude can comment if there’s a better one.
In any case, I think the distances you have to work with for use as surrounds won’t get you to ear level sound with 7000’s. Again, maybe not the end of the world.

I guess we all have to find ways to make our systems work in the room spaces we have (unless we have the luxury of designing a HT, room and all, from scratch).

Whatever you choose, there are no bad combinations of GEt speakers!

Rick

The plenum (blue shading) is just a big rectangular duct, but it's finished with (presumably) a bit of pine and dry-wall. I don't know whether there is any space between the drywall and the duct itself, however the ceiling everywhere else is drop-down ceiling so running cables to the plenum is trivial. To put speakers in the plenum air space I would need to build a bump out.

Do you think it would be better to just have sub-optimal 7000 placement, or maybe go with a SuperSat on the SuperSwivel (this would allow me to align the sides a bit better, I think), or perhaps go with ceiling mounted aimed SuperSats or Invisa 650 or Invisa SP 652?

Don't let the dealer rush you, he'll take your money when you're ready too.

I would not suggest the non-height channels be Invisa HTR 7000 in your setup, they need to be further away from the listening area. If you have walls, I would suggest either Invisa MPX or Invisa SPS as surrounds and/or rears at ear level. If not, perhaps SuperSats on stands or wall mounted at ear level. You may also wish to consider a 5.1.4 instead of 7.1.4, to minimize the number of ear-level channels you need to implement.

Your locations for Atmos height channel speakers looks good, perhaps just a bit more forward for the front height channels.