re: Who to Call .... Dolby Atmos Samsung-Denon

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Well awhile back I had rear surrounds but they were an eye sore (not to me). We're getting older and downsized into a smaller house. So I got rid of my Klipsch Heresy's (bought new in 1975) that were in the front and moved the smaller rear speakers to the front. I'm just trying to make something work. The ceiling speakers are Polk RC80i's.

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I’m assuming the ceiling speakers were already installed when you moved in?

Are the “front” ceiling speakers in the front of the room or are they roughly above the listening position?

If they’re in the front of the room, the ceiling speakers were probably originally intended to be a 5.1 setup (with center channel mounted lower). In this case, I would probably go with one of the following three options:

1. Stick with 5.1 using the ceiling speakers as front and surround L/R. Disconnect your existing L/R entirely (basically going back to the original 5.1 setup).

2. Stick with 5.1 using your current front L/R speakers and the ceiling surround L/R speakers. Disconnect the front ceiling speakers entirely. Personally, I hate having front L/R speakers mounted high on the wall or in ceiling. They should be roughly the same height as your TV for proper imaging. So if your current front speakers are mounted low and you don’t want to mess with option #3, this is probably what I’d do.

3. Add normal surround speakers (mounted low-ish on the wall) and go to 5.1.2. You would use two of your ceiling speakers (probably the front, but maybe the rear if they aren’t behind the listening position) for Atmos height channels while disconnecting the other two.

All of the above assumes the front ceiling speakers are actually in the front of the room (e.g. originally part of a 5.1 system). If the “front” speakers are roughly even with the listening position while the “rear” speakers are behind, they were originally a 7.1 system. In that case, I would either:

1. Go to 5.1 using your current front L/R and using one pair of ceiling speakers as surround L/R. Which pair depends on where they’re mounted. If they were originally 7.1 surrounds, the “front” pair may be too far forward to reasonably use for 5.1 surrounds.

2. Set it up as 7.1 using the ceiling speakers as the 4 surround channels.

3. Go to 5.1.2 by adding normal surrounds and using the “front” ceiling speakers as Atmos height channels (basically same as #3 above).

In any case, it’s not going to sound good to mix ceiling speakers as both surrounds and Atmos height channels. As others have said, you need the vertical separation between the channels for Atmos to really be worthwhile.

One other tidbit - personally, I would say that a properly set up 5.1.2 system adds more to the viewing experience than a 7.1 system. So if adding lower surround speakers is an option, I’d probably go that route over 7.1. But that’s just me.