I'm building a dedicated theater room, and am trying to decide how to handle the L and R speakers. I have a wall on one side, but kind of an open space with a wall about 6 feet farther from the seating on the other. Would you:

1. Put the same speakers in the wall on both sides, even though one side is a bit farther away;

2. Put in equidistant ceiling speakers on both sides; or

3. Put in wall speakers on one side and ceiling speakers on the other.

I also debating whether I need one or two speakers on each side. The side wall is 16', in a 16x24 room.

All speakers will be the same brand and line I'd also be happy to hear any feedback you have on particular in-wall/ceiling home theater speakers. and receivers. Whatever we get will be paired up with a 4K projector and ~120" screen, and powered by Apple TV 4K.

Your speakers should match. Always. Never use ceiling speakers for LCR. Go in walls. Let your receiver calibration fix the difference in distance from your seated position.

My HT has KEF ci3160 in walls for LCR.

Agree with Agdoc, your receiver calibration will offset any level differences due to distance.

BigAg95 said:

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I'm building a dedicated theater room, and am trying to decide how to handle the L and R speakers. I have a wall on one side, but kind of an open space with a wall about 6 feet farther from the seating on the other. Would you:

1. Put the same speakers in the wall on both sides, even though one side is a bit farther away;

2. Put in equidistant ceiling speakers on both sides; or

3. Put in wall speakers on one side and ceiling speakers on the other.

I also debating whether I need one or two speakers on each side. The side wall is 16', in a 16x24 room.

All speakers will be the same brand and line I'd also be happy to hear any feedback you have on particular in-wall/ceiling home theater speakers. and receivers. Whatever we get will be paired up with a 4K projector and ~120" screen, and powered by Apple TV 4K.

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What projectors are you looking at?

agdoc and AquaCasa - thanks for the input, I'll make sure to get a receiver that does a good job with calibration. Last time I needed to do that was on a setup I put together around 20 years ago, and I did not fare too well.

Counterpoint - I have not gotten serious about picking a projector yet, but I am thinking a fairly low end 4K projector, probably Optoma or BenQ or ViewSonic, something in the 2K range. Have not done much research yet though, so I appreciate any input anyone has. This will go in a dark basement and will be ceiling mounted to avoid getting smashed by a violent toddler.

BigAg95 said:

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agdoc and AquaCasa - thanks for the input, I'll make sure to get a receiver that does a good job with calibration. Last time I needed to do that was on a setup I put together around 20 years ago, and I did not fare too well.

Counterpoint - I have not gotten serious about picking a projector yet, but I am thinking a fairly low end 4K projector, probably Optoma or BenQ or ViewSonic, something in the 2K range. Have not done much research yet though, so I appreciate any input anyone has. This will go in a dark basement and will be ceiling mounted to avoid getting smashed by a violent toddler.

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I just got an Ultra Short Throw projector. I like it a lot so far (at night...it's not so great in the day but that wasn't unexpected!), but I don't have anything to compare it to. It's still in the 30 day trial period but I think I'm going to keep it.

Yeah, I am very intrigued by those. Which one did you go with?

It's been a couple years since I built my HT... but I recall there not being very many options with true native 4K resolution. Optoma and BenQ were the names I remember claiming it. I wound up with the Epson as they've been HT space for a while and while I didn't get native 4k, it does use their upscaling technology which reads and shows 4K discs... there is a difference in quality than standard blu ray but perhaps the trained eye can distinguish from the "fake" 4K and the real thing.

I was also requiring a Motorized zoom/shift/focus feature with memory settings so I can easily shift from 16x9 to 2.4x1 on my 2.4x1 screen. I like having the extra width rather than the extra height.

Good luck. And totally agree with the same speakers for LCR and no in ceiling if you can help it. Mine are behind the acoustically transparent screen.

BigAg95 said:

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agdoc and AquaCasa - thanks for the input, I'll make sure to get a receiver that does a good job with calibration. Last time I needed to do that was on a setup I put together around 20 years ago, and I did not fare too well.

Counterpoint - I have not gotten serious about picking a projector yet, but I am thinking a fairly low end 4K projector, probably Optoma or BenQ or ViewSonic, something in the 2K range. Have not done much research yet though, so I appreciate any input anyone has. This will go in a dark basement and will be ceiling mounted to avoid getting smashed by a violent toddler.

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Super late reply, but in the 2k or below category, you can't beat Epson. 5040 or 6040ub should be in that range. Best bang for buck. Not true 4k, but they "wobble" the pixels to make it look 99% as good.

I wound up going with an Optoma short throw unit. There was some mechanical stuff in the ceiling I could not move around, so we needed a throw ratio of less than .7/1 to get a decent sized image.

I am still working out the speakers and receiver bit. I notice that most 7 channel receivers are Atmos certified, but the height speakers are only supported in the same channel as the rear surrounds. However, in most of their speaker placement diagrams for an Atmos setup they show both height and rear surround speakers and often no left and right surrounds. I see the same thing in the official diagrams from Dolby for a 5.1.2 setup. Are they just running the left and right surround channels to the rear surrounds? If so, wouldn't that sound weird? Or is that something you can fix via calibration?

recently bough an optoma (not a short throw) and have zero regrets thus far

Back to the speakers - why not L/R on the front wall vs side walls? Rookie question here, just curious.

I will have front left and right speakers, they will be in the wall behind the screen along with the center channel.

What I was asking about in the first post was the L and R surround speakers on the side of the room, and whether I could put them int he ceiling. Now my plan is to just skip those, and go with the 3 speakers in the front (L/C/R), two height channels in the ceiling, and two rear surround speakers, and 2 subs for a 5.2.2 configuration. But I am having trouble figuring out a good receiver to drive that setup unless I buy a 9.2 AVR that has separate channels for Height and Surround Rear, or whether I should go with a 7.2 system and run the rear surrounds from the side surround channels.

jackie childs said:

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recently bough an optoma (not a short throw) and have zero regrets thus far

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Good to hear!

agdoc2001 said:

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BigAg95 said:

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agdoc and AquaCasa - thanks for the input, I'll make sure to get a receiver that does a good job with calibration. Last time I needed to do that was on a setup I put together around 20 years ago, and I did not fare too well.

Counterpoint - I have not gotten serious about picking a projector yet, but I am thinking a fairly low end 4K projector, probably Optoma or BenQ or ViewSonic, something in the 2K range. Have not done much research yet though, so I appreciate any input anyone has. This will go in a dark basement and will be ceiling mounted to avoid getting smashed by a violent toddler.

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Super late reply, but in the 2k or below category, you can't beat Epson. 5040 or 6040ub should be in that range. Best bang for buck. Not true 4k, but they "wobble" the pixels to make it look 99% as good.

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Yeah, all my research pointed that direction but I could not find a short throw option within my budget.

Biggest advice I have is to get the best center you can that is timbre matched with your LR. Most of your dialogue will come through your center, and you want that to be as clear as possible.

YourFavAggie said:

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Biggest advice I have is to get the best center you can that is timbre matched with your LR. Most of your dialogue will come through your center, and you want that to be as clear as possible.

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Yes sir, all the speakers are already bought. I'll have 7 of the exact same speaker all the way around. I went with Micca reference 8 inch in walls. They are super cheap, but have decent reviews online. I am putting them in as kind of an experiment. If they don't work out, the plan is to put them in the ceiling in other parts of the house as part of a whole home music system, and I'll replace them with better speakers in the theater.