Background:

The room is a 17'x35' great room, but the actual living room / home theater space is more like 17'x20'. So think of the room as 17' deep x 20' wide with the right side completely open. The couch is completely against the back wall and is 16' wide (taking up most of the 20' space). Ceiling height is 9 feet.

I will be using Triton 2's and a SuperCenter XL for the front. The Tritons will be roughly 10 feet apart, so if you're sitting on any of the 4 middle cushions of the couch, you'll be between the towers. The left and right outer cushions will be outside of the towers.

The house came pre-wired for rear ceiling speakers and they are placed approximately the same 10 feet apart, 2 feet from the back wall. I have SOME flexibility on placement since no holes were cut in the ceiling (wire is just sitting behind the drywall) but not much unless I want to start cutting additional holes and re-running wires in my brand new house.

Questions:

It seems like my options for rears are: SuperSat 3C's with some kind of articulating ceiling bracket, Invisa 650's in the ceiling or Invisa HTR 7000's in the ceiling (for $500 more).

1) Are the Invisa HTR 7000's overkill or are they worth double the price?

2) What is going to sound/perform better? Externally mounted SuperSat 3C's or in-ceiling Invisas? I have to think the SuperSats, but I don't know. I don't really care about hiding the rear speakers. I already have a projector hanging from the ceiling, so 2 speakers isn't going to make any difference aesthetically.

3) If the SuperSats make sense, how would you orient them? Pointed directly down? Down and towards the back wall? Down and towards the back/side wall (corner)? Since they would be roughly 2 feet back from the rear wall, they end up almost directly on top of the people sitting on the couch, or maybe even 6-12 inches in front of them. I may be able to move them back a little bit closer to the back wall if the placement is a big issue.

4) If I want to do atmos in the future, would I just buy 4 Invisa 525's and put 2 of them in the ceiling over the towers, 2 of them where my rear speakers currently are, and then move my current rear speakers to in/on the rear wall? At that point I'd be drilling holes and running wires all over the place so moving the rear speakers wouldn't be a problem.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sorry for the late reply, seems I missed this and no one else has chosen to chime in yet. In your situation the HTR 7000's sound like the best choice. In-ceiling rears that point straight down do not really create the surround effects as they are intended. The HTR 7000 will project the sound down to create the illusion the speaker is behind rather than above. SuperSats would need to be wall mounted and a universal bracket will work for this application. If used, point them forward and down toward the center of the room. For Atmos Rear/Surround speakers should be at ear level. Adding four Invisa 525s in the appropriate locations would then complete the Atmos setup.

Assuming I could place the SuperSat 3's where the ceiling and back wall meet, and point them downward at 45 degree angle, would they be a better choice than the HTR 7000's? Or at least comparable?

Hey Ben Fried,
I too totally missed your post, somehow it did not show up until today.
Not that I have any expertise for your questions, the Moderator Dude is the one for those questions.
Just wanted to say that it sounds like you will have a great system when you are finished. Your fronts and center are AWESOME, so even a little bit of a compromise here and there on the rear surrounds is no big deal.
Please let us know what you choose and how it works for you.
Thanks for joining in, enjoy the ride to musical nirvana,
God Bless,
Wayne