A Guide to Dolby Atmos in the Home - article discussion

Will these do for the Monitor Audio C165 speakers for fire hoods?

 
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Thanks looks a bit expensive that for 20 metres £40?

Is it sorry not clued up, thanks for clarifying.

I'd take a trip to a dealer and take your time putting together your system.

They used to say spend about 10% of your systems budget on cables. Not too sure how accurate that advice would be nowadays.

The speaker cables running my fronts were around £35.00 a metre.

Worth it ? I think so ! (others would disagree but that's for another thread)
When i bought them (way back) a forum member brought some cable round for a shootout & both agreed the Chord Company Odyssey 4 bi-wire cables were (much) better, not 100% sure but i think the other cables were Van Damme Blue.
 
There's absoluely no benefit to spending more than £10 per meter on 2 core wire. As I said, all you need to look out for is Oxygen Free Copper and good quality insulation. Both can be had for under a tenner.

As far as the thickness goes, this is dependant upon the distance the wire has to run. The shorter the run then the thinner the wire can be.

The one thing you should avoid is cheap bell wire.


 
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Daft question, all of my speakers except 2 have copper metal wires, 2 have silver wires, the actual metal wires that touch, is this ok? All the speaker wire I see in links on here are bronze/copper in colour. My speaker wire is about 10 years old.
 
FWIW I ran my front three MK MPS300 speakers each with about 10 metres length (due to running round the room) with this 2.5mm OFC cable from Amazon that is less than £1 per metre, so I'd consider this more than good enough for short Atmos runs. My speakers are 4ohms too, but even then I'm not close to needing anything larger cross section or more expensive (since this is OFC anyway).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019545UQA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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you may want to put in fire-rated cable!
It's not expensive and if you are putting in fire hoods then it would make sense
less than £1 pm

Can't remember where I got mine from, but this came up on a quick google

 
BTW, don't drive yourself nuts on cables.
Whether you think they make a difference or not (and don't ask; it's a black hole of an argument from which you never return!), with 7 speakers and a subwoofer in the mix it's not going to be a worry.

Stick with what you have and use whatever you want with the atmos ones
 
But why is the speaker wire silver on one and copper on all others, is there difference in signal quality etc.
 
Can we keep conversations about wires off a dedicated Atmos thread please guys.
 
Sure ok. Right the C165 speakers arrived. First thing wow, there big, didnt realise so big. Builders been and he can install them no problem. Thing is do I go for 2 or 4 atmos speaker install? Options are lose the middle rears (Denon 4400 amp) and have 4 atmos speakers or have 2 atmos speakers and keep middle rears, which would you recommend? Gap between the rears and fronts would be 2 metres and 20cm. Is that big enough gap. I can get it more tbh by placing the front atmos speakers further away so have a 3 metre gap from fronts to rear. Room pic attached it's quite a big room.
 

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Once again, there are no such thing as middle rears! Your current setup is a 7.1 floor layer consisting of:

Front left and right speaker
A centre speaker
2 surround speakers
2 back surround speakers
A subwoofer

The receiver you have now has 9 integral channels of amplification that can fascilitate you with either a 7.1.2 setp which would require that you add 2 additional Atmos speakers or you can have a 5.1.4 setup that requires 4 Atmos speakers. It can potentially process up to 11 channels simultaneously so you could potentially have a 7.1.4 setup if you add an external 2 channel power amp at some future date. I'd install all 4 ceiling speakers to enable you to expand your setup at some future date. Also note that the remaining surrounds would be connected to the sy=urround terminals and not the back surround terminals in a 5.1.4 setup.

snapshot001.jpg



A 5.1.4 setup will consist of:

Front left and right speaker
A centre speaker
2 surround speakers
4 Atmos speakers (in this case ceiling speakers)
A subwoofer



Whether going for a 7.1.2 or a 5.1.4 setup at this point in time, I'd still install all 4 Atmos speakers now even if taking the 7.1.2 option. At least you'll then not have to start taking floors up and making holes in your ceiling if you ever decide to add an external amp and go with a full blown 7.1.4 setup.

Also note that if you install all 4 ceiling speakers then you yourself can test both a 5.1.4 and a 7.1.2 setup for yourself and make your own mind up as to which you prefer.
 
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Thanks for that, question is which will give me a better movie audio experience, 5.1.4 or 7.1.2.
 
I also remotely remember THX running some prelimanary tests with various Atmos configurations. They came to the conclusion that it was better to keep the back suround and have a 7.1.2 setup as opposed to sacrificing them in favour of a 5.1.4 setup if limited to just 9 channels.

As suggested, if you install all 4 Atmos speakers now then you can come to your own conclusions and you'll be able to try both setups for yourself.
 
Thanks, just worried I will miss my rear surrounds.

You mean your back surrounds?


AS said, there's nothing preventing you from trying both a 5.1.4 and a 7.1.2 setup if you install all 4 speakers in the ceiling now. You can then use your own judgement to determine which you prefer.


I'd veer towards a 7.1.2 setup given the size of your room. It is a good sized space, but not expansive enough to suggest more than 2 Atmos speakers as being essential. Try both for yourself though.
 
True, thank you for input. Going for a 5.1.4 set up with Atoms speakers about 2.5 metres apart front set to back set.
 
Has anyone used a 2 channel amp to add 2 channels say I wanted to have surround backs? Complicated to do, expensive?
 
It is relatively easy to do if using a dedicated 2 channel power amp or even a stereo integrated amp that includes HT bypass. The cost is dependant upon the amp you choose to buy. It can be a relatively expensive endeavour if wanting to power the front stereo pair with the external amp to free up the associated internal amps to power the additional Atmos speakers with because you'd want to use a higher quality amp in association with those speakers. It can be less costly if simply buying a less powerful and or accumplished power amps to directly power the Atmos speakers with.

Here's a typical 2 channel power amp:


Maybe scout about on the classifieds section for a used 2 channel power amp?
 
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Bloody hell!

Just rewired all my speaker set up and just run out despite ordering 50 metres, thing is I have 4 Atmos left and 1 surround rear to do and hes installing my atmos tomorrow about 11am, will a different brand be ok if I can get some to collect, not sure where as I'm in Halifax.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01C79Z1FU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

What wire have you used for the speakers you've wired up?


There are several hifi stores in and around Halifax.
 
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Best order it again then and hope it arrives in time. I'm assuming that you've a Prime account?
 

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