Hi Troy, If you were going to use one pair of Invisa 650s and one pair of Invisa HTR7000s as your Atmos speakers, I would normally use the Invisa HTR7000s as your "front Atmos" speakers and the Invisa 650s as your "rear Atmos" speakers. It might, however, depend a bit on where you're going to place these speakers. Specifically, the Invisa HTR7000s work better when placed a bit further away from the listening position than the Invisa 650s. Ideally, I'd recommend placing the Invisa HTR7000s approximately 4 feet away from the main listening position, and the Invisa 650s a foot or two away from the main listening position. In this application, I'd recommend placing the Invisa HTR7000s approximately 4 feet in front of the main listening position, and the Invisa 650s a foot or two behind the main listening position. Happy Listening!

A friend of mine has the exact same height set up you are envisioning, 7000 top fronts and 650 top rears, and he absolutely loves it. Was a skeptic for awhile about adding heights to his 7.1 system, now up mixes any formats that don't include the height channels, as do I. We both love the DTS Neural:X up mixer in particular, which can be used to up mix either Dolby or DTS sound tracks that don't include height channels. I use the up mixer on virtually anything not the newer Atmos or DTS:X height sound tracks.

After you get them installed, don't be afraid to play with gain adjustments for those new speakers. Many folks, including myself and my friend, first wondered, "where's the beef"? It seem our ears, pointing forward and being directional, don't receive over head sounds as well as sounds in front.Others on the forum have experienced the same. Even using a SL mic to adjust won't necessarily get you there. If the overhead sound field doesn't seem very real or apparent, try adding .5 dB gain to each channel at a time until that part of the sound field sounds balanced with the rest of the sound field. And then I think you'll be amazed at what those channels can add to the listening experience. You'll be ducking sometimes!

Happy listening!

Rick

Awesome! Yeah, I think the directionality and extra "ooomph" of the HTRs would be lost on the rears, especially with my high-back recliners. I think some 650s would provide additional fill to both the back height and overall rear along with the SS 3s on the wall (rear surrounds) to really create a nice sound field all around.

Forgot to mention: I love DTS Neural WITHOUT having height speakers. It really smoothes out most soundtracks and provides extra "breathing room" -- especially on the overly-compressed digital tracks from streaming services. In fact it is my "Power On Mode" for my Anthem MRX 1140.

Looking forward to what it can do with the height channels added!

Totally agree! The top rears seem to need additional gain over the top fronts in part because of listening chair height, and in part because they're even further behind our ears. And yes, the top rears do provide great fill support for the surround/rear sound field.

And BTW, your Anthem MRX 1140 is a great receiver!