Assembling A Good Atmos System

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If you are like many and have been forced to stay home for the past two years, a good system to watch those movies will be a nice thing to have. 

If you have grown beyond those soundbars, and the entry level home theatre systems and want a decent system, I think a good price point is the 10k mark.

Firstly, what does it NOT cover:

- no TV or projector

- no furniture

- no blu ray player

- no calibration - unless you're a good negotiator, it's not standard for such a low budget

- room treatment and acoustic professional 


What will this cover:

- 1 sub

- centre / sides / rear / front

- cables

- Atmos speakers

- stands


You can top up for better speakers / cables and change the fronts to towers or add an extra sub


I would suggest around 2.5k to 3k for the front three, i.e. front R&L and centre

Then around 600-800 for the side, rear backs and top Atmos speakers - four pairs. 

Keeping them in the same family helps. Using the same speakers all the various surrounds helps, but make sure your ceiling can support the bookshelves or use in ceiling sounds.

Get proper stands for your speakers. 

Atacama makes decent priced stands


Fronts speaker: towers / bookshelf speakers :

- now it's a nice thing to have a tower speaker which looks impressive, but the reality is that in a small apartment, the speaker won't function well stuck in a corner and that's where many owners will place their speakers. Most also won't spend a lot on room treatment, so a bookshelf speaker is easier to manage and just channel the bass to the subwoofer

- but do pay for good speaker stands. There's no point spending a lot on speakers if you're just going to put them on a cheap MDF console. That goes for the subwoofer as well. If you simply stick it into the same MDF made console, you are not doing your equipment justice. Support it well 


Speaker placement and calibration:


Not enough buyers do this well. Use the Dolby guidelines as a start (https://www.dolby.com/siteassets/technologies/dolby-atmos/atmos-installation-guidelines-121318_r3.1.pdf), then go ahead and make sure changes to suit your needs but if they are too far off, don't expect good sound. Just like the front speakers, you don't want to plant them in a corner and expect tip top sound.

For the base layer, typically the rule of thumb is to put them within a foot or two of the height of your seated listening position.


Engage the shop where you buy your stuff, and that's one reason to use one vendor so they are more willing to come and help with calibration. Remember, calibration needs to happen after you run in the system. So do one basic calibration, enjoy the system and see what's lacking then spend time on adjusting levels, positions of the subwoofer etc.


There are nice tips for subwoofer placement eg https://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/crawling-for-bass-subwoofer-placement


The right placement of the sub will really improve your HT enjoyment.


Get a SPL meter or use an app on your phone. Get a laser point or protractor to help check the angle of the Atmos speakers from your seat. If you are using reflecting speakers for Atmos, make sure the ceiling gives a solid reflection, and basically treatment of the ceiling is vastly different as compared to ceiling mounted one.

Check for vibrations if you are using a false ceiling and make sure your fan doesn't make it worse or has enough clearance from your ceiling speakers. I turn it off when I'm using my system. 



Some tips to save:

- get second hand stands, stand seldom break down, but look out for rust

- you can consider 2nd hand speakers, but I'll be very careful to check if the speaker has been abused, especially subwoofers and front speakers

- always plan at least 20% access for the cables to allow some movement of speakers

- terminate with banana plugs in the walls

- budget around 10% of your money on cables


One more thing:

Garbage in garbage out. If you're using poor quality sources you won't enjoy your system much. I cannot help reiterate the importance of good speaker placement again at this point.







As for the budget, you can go higher for better quality, and sound, but spend more on the sub and the centre. And again speaker placement is vital to good sound.



____________________________________________________________ 
 I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.

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