Atmos setup for family room, no floorstanding speakers

[Shyatic]

Hi all,

 

So I am in the process of building a new home... there will be a roughly 18x20 family room (with 2 story ceiling) where I'd like to put a home theater. I want to build an Atmos setup with overhead speakers (and I understand the overheads don't have to be the best or most expensive), in probably a 7.2.4 or 7.1.4 configuration. The primary use (95%+) is for watching movies.

 

I've been out of the speaker game for a long time but I've always liked the Klipsch speakers in the past. My wife doesn't want floor standing speakers as the TV will be over the fireplace and kind of an eyesore, so what I'm looking for is wall-mountable bookshelf speakers. I need a good center, front left/right, side surrounds and rear surrounds. The overhead speakers I was looking at the Polks RC80i since they are decent quality and inexpensive. For the rest of the speakers I'd like to stick to a ~$2000 budget. 

 

So thoughts? I have heard I need larger front speakers than rears/surrounds. I was thinking about in-wall speakers but I've heard they suck compared to bookshelf speakers. Again, they all need to be wall-mountable as well. Appreciate any help!

Edited April 27, 2018 by Shyatic

[willland]

@Shyatic,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

My suggestion(as well as others) would be to have all your speakers from the same brand as well as the same line.  Timbre matching is very important, IMO.

 

Your front soundstage(L-C-R) should be your largest most powerful speakers of the lot.

 

Bill

 

[EJC]

That 2 story ceiling may be an issue for your main speakers.
I just did an installation at our winter home and the 18' ceiling was a problem. To keep the wife happy, I too wanted to avoid floor standing speakers and went with M-L Edge in walls. This turned out to be an expensive mistake. These were great sounding at the demo but would overdrive and the speakers bottomed in this room. I added a pair of Heresys and set M-Ls to front effects and the world changed.

I also had an issue with the center channel, I started with an M-L SLM for the center and it had the same problem, I switched to a Klipsch RP450C. I needed the bigger box with normal drivers to fill the room.

 

Good luck and think it through

 

 

[dtel]

Personally I would rethink the whole thing. I think your going to have alot of disappointment with a 2 story ceiling, the sound at that height may just all blur together ? 

 

And I agree completely with Willland,  one brand is always better, it's most important with the front 3.

 

What ever way you decide to go good luck and I hope it turns out great.

 

Welcome, and stick around even if you go with a different brand, there are many here with tons of experience who can help with this.

[derrickdj1]

The Atmos setup with a 2 story ceiling is a NO go!  Just setup some in-wall Front, Center and surrounds if aesthetics is a problem.  I use in-ceiling and in-wall and think they are very nice.  If you get small bookshelf speakers, they will need a stand so, very similar space issues as with floor standing speaker and wire problems.