TLAH 7-8' away and misc. home theater questions

[Fastskiguy]

Not that I needed to but I went ahead and made a pair of TLAH's for a home theater project where the seats were 11' from the screen. However, WAF factors came into play and it looks like we are going to be sitting 7-8' away from the screen. Should I...go ahead and use the TLAH's as planned or should I make up some SLA's because we're so close to them? I'm planning on an SLA center speaker FWIW.

Aaaannndd.....I read a thread that questioned atmos in a home theater, is the juice worth the squeeze? I'm not opposed to 7.2.4 or 5.2.4 or whatever but what I read mentioned jumping a shark (which I didn't really understand LOL).

Finally, timbre matching, is that a thing? A neighbor has some "home theater speakers" (not sure what kind or model) he'd be willing to give me if I could use them. If I make a system with a lot of speakers it would be darn easy to just use his. But is it going to make the whole system sound terrible? (I'm guessing no but....??)

Thanks guys

Joe

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

7-8 feet away is probably OK. A potentially more serious issue is rear wall reflection cancellation. If this distance change is the result of moving the furniture away from the rear wall the distance from the rear wall could kill your bass. ATMOS IMO is Dolby jumping the shark. Google it. I wouldn't mix speakers. I certainly wouldn't mix line sources with point sources.

[Fastskiguy]

OK, no mix point source and line sources, atmos may not be "all of that", and reflections off of the rear wall....is that something that damping material along the back wall can solve?

Joe

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Taming reflections off the rear wall that will cause low frequency cancellations would require covering the entire wall with at least four inches of damping. Seating placement is just like subwoofer placement, it should always be close to the wall. When you can't do that the only cure is multiple subs spread around the room.

[Fastskiguy]

OK so seating position close to the wall, got it.

On a thread or two I found people making a little two driver surround speaker boxes with no tweeter line (no tweeter at all)...are those for atmos or for any surround or are they not really recommended at all? Are "regular" SLA's with 4 mid basses the way to go?

Joe

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Those are surrounds, they're in the SLA plans.

[Fastskiguy]

My plans are from 2014 (man does time fly!)....is this something added between then and now?

Joe

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3432

[Fastskiguy]

Updated plans from a purchase in 2014....that's a pretty darn good deal in this day and age, thanks

I found some videos with the movies playing just the atmos speakers...actiony stuff like godzilla and mad max and....really not much sound coming out at all, like a few minutes of sound in the whole movie in little bitty bits. Seems like the potential is there but it's just not being used ATM. Can't say I'm sad about dealing with ceiling mounting stuff though!

Joe

[ecut1]

Check out the info online about Auro 3D and using the Auro 3D layout for atmos. Auro 3D gives you several options but it's basically a regular surround system at ear level (0 degrees) then a second layer at about 30 degrees. A third layer can be added (but doesn't have to be) directly overhead if your ceiling is high enough. Reviewers say the atmos stuff sounds pretty good using the Auro 3D layout. But even more reviews say the up-mixing of regular Dolby stuff to Auro 3D is pretty awesome. This is sort of what I'm leaning towards. I'm thinking a 5.1 with a single upper layer... might as well use all nine channels of my receiver. Then no holes in the ceiling and I can build DIY surrounds for the upper layer.

[Fastskiguy]

I’ll definitely check it out, thanks:)