Rear on-wall or in-wall recommendation for R-820F system

[Salz]

I am building a home theater room in my basement. I purchased the R-820F, R-34C & R-120SW. I am looking for compatible on-wall or in-wall rear surrounds and in-ceiling atmos speakers.

 

The R-820 home theater system package recommendation on the website includes the R-51M for the rear surround and these are bookshelf, I do not have room for a stand. The R-41SA look like on-top-speaker mount and I have the ability to install in-ceiling, which I thought is the optimal location for atmos speakers.

 

Can anyone recommend on-wall or in-wall rear surrounds and in-ceiling atmos speakers that will work with what I already purchased and is along the same value?

Edited October 18, 2020 by Salz

[Salz]

Is there not any Reference on-wall or in-wall surround speakers that will work with what I purchased?

Is my question confusing?

[Univek]

Welcome to the forum!  

 

Some additional context may help people give you more constructive feedback. e.g.  Are you looking for side surround in addition to rear surround?  Also, for Atmos, sounds like you're aiming to have overhead (in-ceiling) speakers vs. Atmos-enabled (reflected)?  In addition,  are you looking for 4 ceiling or 2?

 

Dolby has an excellent Atmos set up guide where it shows the placement (angle is important to note here) on the various configurations.  You can see with your desired number of channels, if the angle in your room allow for optimal placement.

https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/

 

Lastly, I had in-wall side and rear surrounds and switched to on-wall RP-250s (the old version of RP-502s) because I wanted wider dispersion.  In-wall will have more of a 'finished' and hidden look, especially if you paint the grills.  So that's also something you may have to consider.  I have some photo in my profile you can take a look.  With on-wall, there is less of work if you decide to change... where as with in-wall, not all sizes are the same so keep that in mind.

 

Looking on the Klipsch site, I'd say any of their 6.5" inwall speakers should match well.  i.e. RP-160rpw, 3650-w.  Same goes with the inceiling set of speakers. i.e. rp-160rpc, 3650-c.  I just recently got Klipsch RP surrounds and ceilings vs I had Yamaha before.  I'd say they definitely sounded better now to me but I don't think my wife can tell the difference. : )  LCR are key and can take your time to fill in the rest.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Univek

[Salz]

Oh great, you just confused me more with that dolby site 😜. Seriously though, thanks for the info Univek, it gives me ideas I did not consider before. The back of my theater area is an open room so if I add rear surround, I would have to put them on the ceiling. I used to have a 6.1 mini speaker setup in a previous house and I loved the helicopter, airplane, rain etc. sounds coming from behind.  I do not have the budget for 7.2.4 right now. I will only be able to purchase side surrounds and ceiling atmos for now.
I am looking for side surround. I was considering 4 side speakers in the future because I will have 2 rows of seats. Maybe 2 Klipsch RP surrounds will be enough for my side surrounds?

 

If you can only choose 1 of the 3 setups, which would you pick?

A- 4 side surrounds and 2 ceiling atmos

B- 2 side surrounds and 4 ceiling atmos

C- 2 side surrounds, 2 rear surrounds in the ceiling, 2 ceiling atmos 

 

I have not researched an AV receiver yet. With the following speaker power I have so far, (the sides and ceiling atmos will be the same or lower). What power should I look for in a receiver?

One thing I will be gambling on is the amount of speakers I want in the future. 7.2.4 or 7.2.2

  

 

 

[wuzzzer]

I'd choose option C.

 

Don't focus on wattage.  Find a receiver with the features you need from brands like Marantz,  Denon,  Yamaha,  Pioneer Elite.  I'd recommend buying a factory refurbished unit from accessories4less.com.  They often have fantastic deals. 

[Salz]

BTW- Why are in-wall and in-ceiling speakers more expensive? I thought they were less $

[Salz]

How about one of these receivers for the speakers I have? I will be adding a 4K projector

[inMotionGraphics]

I went with your option C for a 7.2.2 layout because I already had the 7 bed channel speakers installed when I upgraded to Dolby Atmos. However, I have heard people recommend going with your option B for a 5.1.4 because the rear surrounds aren't very active. I can't say which is better because I haven't heard the 5.1.4 setup as a comparison, but I am very happy with my 7.2.2 setup for what it's worth. 

 

Definitely don't go with option A though. You do not need or want 4 side surrounds. 

 

I agree with @wuzzzer not to focus on wattage. The only real critical issue is how many channels of processing you need and how many channels of amplification. If you are aiming for an eventual 7.1.4, then that's going to require a much more expensive receiver with either 11 channels of processing and amplification, or 11 channels of processing and an external amp for the additional two channels. If you know you're not going to need that ever, then just choose between the 5.1.4 and 7.1.2 layouts and get a 9 channel receiver... and if you can't decide, then do whichever is more convenient or cheaper in your particular room... 🙂

[Salz]

Thank you everyone for the input, I appreciate it! I am having a lot of fun researching and building a system. 

I am going to stick with 9 channels. I am leaning towards option: C- 2 side surrounds, 2 rear surrounds in the ceiling, 2 in-ceiling atmos. I really like the action sound coming from the rear (the way I wrote that did not sounded good 🤔) but it does seem to be a rare occasion when sound is sent to those channels, maybe it depends on the movie audio coding?

 

When selection a Receiver, do I have to match the 8 ohms of my speakers to the receiver? The 2 receivers I have specked out so far in the post above are both 4 ohms.

People in the know always say do not focus and spend $ on too much receiver Wattage. From what I am reading, Klipsch speakers are efficient. I just want to make sure I get what I paid for out of my speakers. What should the wattage range of a receiver be for my R-820F 150W/600W speakers? My budget for a 9 channel receiver is $1,500

 

As far as receiver features what are basic must haves and what should I look out for? I will primarily be using this for watching movies, I don't imagine I will use this much for music listening. I will be using ceiling speakers for atmos. I do not need multiple room set ups. I did not have video running through my old receiver. Why would you run video through a receiver, just for turning on/off all components easily? 

Inputs:

HDMI Blu-ray player

HDMI Roku

I have ethernet cable for the internets but I am guessing I will run that to the Roku and then the Roku HDMI to the receiver?

Coaxial TV antenna for local channels

 

Outputs:

9.2 audio channels

HDMI to Projector?

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Salz

[inMotionGraphics]

20 hours ago, Salz said:

I am leaning towards option: C- 2 side surrounds, 2 rear surrounds in the ceiling, 2 in-ceiling atmos.

 

Not to add confusion or uncertainty to your plan, but if you can't put the rear surrounds on the rear wall as per Dolby recommendations (or as close to as possible), then I would rather go with a 5.1.4 setup. Dolby Atmos speakers are meant to be in the ceiling, but not bed channel rear surrounds. I feel like you'll get a more realistic representation of the sound field if you stick to the Dolby Atmos recommendations as best as possible.

 

20 hours ago, Salz said:

The 2 receivers I have specked out so far in the post above are both 4 ohms.

 

I think you're misunderstanding those specs. Those are minimum ratings, or put otherwise, the receivers are capable of handling 4 ohm loads, but they'll definitely do 8 ohm loads, so you really don't have to worry about this spec at all with the speakers you are choosing. 4 ohm loads are harder on the amps than 8 ohms, and some amps/receivers might battle with 4 ohm loads, but neither receiver will have a problem driving your speakers... 

 

20 hours ago, Salz said:

As far as receiver features what are basic must haves and what should I look out for?

 

Either of these receivers will work just fine I'm sure (although I haven't got hands on experience with either of them). The 3700 has more features, none of which are critical in my opinion, and slightly less power. If you plan on buying an 8K TV in the future or you need HDR10+, then go with the newer 3700 model, otherwise the 4500 with slightly more power and possibly a slightly better build quality will do just fine.

 

20 hours ago, Salz said:

Why would you run video through a receiver, just for turning on/off all components easily? 

 

Well, both these receivers provide video upscaling, so you could upscale blue-ray disks or other 1080p and lower resolution sources to 4K via the receivers. Not all TV's have upscaling built in as far as I know, but I could be wrong. I do it mostly out of convenience I suppose... easier to run one HDMI cable from each of my sources to the receiver and then one HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV for the video signal from all sources, instead of running video and audio separately from each of your sources. Wouldn't you also run out of inputs on your TV if you have a number of different sources?