Best Height Speakers for Dolby Atmos: Coaxial? Ceiling Mountable Atmos Modules? Genelec, Kali, KEF, and other options?

[stevenswall]

$1800 + Amp: KEF R8 Meta is wall mountable, but I'm not sure how it would work on a ceiling. Coaxial and angled are nice.

$5000: Genelec 8331 are mountable but would protrude more, though they could be tilted, and have built in DSP to compensate for the close proximity placement. Would need audio cables, ethernet to use GLM, and power to each speaker, which is a mess for wires running on the ceiling. (Drywall and joists.)

$800-2000: Kali IN5 or SM5, less expensive options, would need power and audio wiring, except the passive SM5 which would be a nice solution though the amps are $2000 by themselves, making me lean towards the Genelecs.

Any other recommendations? These are all coaxial so that reflections from the nearby ceiling don't sound incorrect. Don't really want to cut holes in the ceiling, so looking for any other options that can be mounted, creative solutions, or things I'm missing. Probably not interested in a typical 2 way monitor that isn't coaxial as those are more or less broken for any application where there's a reflective surface nearby compared to coaxials and such, unless they have well controlled vertical dispersion.... which means I wouldn't be able to place them with as much flexibility.

Maybe a Phantom Reactor installer version could work too.

Ideally there would be a cheap, ceiling mount version of the KEF speakers, and maybe drilling into a cheap pair wouldn't be too terrible.

 

[chelgrian]

There is the Dali Alteco C1, same style as the KEF but cheaper. Polk also make a similar product.

If you want something mounted on rather than in a ceiling, perhaps because your walls are inconvenient, then perhaps you could come up with a safe way to mount KEF Q4s?

 

[BJL]

I have three pairs of SVS Ultra Elevation speakers, which can be conveniently wall or ceiling mounted, with a good results, though they are two way speakers. I don't have any problem with reflections or anything else, but I do use DIrac for room correction/eq, perhaps that is why. I also use one pair as front wide horizontally mounted on parallel walls. About $700/pair.

 

[Power Pop 23]

Q1 Meta

Discover the Q1 Meta HiFi Speaker. A 5.25” Uni-Q driver with MAT™ is perfect for bookshelf, centre, or LCR use. Enjoy precise, high-fidelity sound.

us.kef.com

13.4 pounds, about 12"x7"x11"

Perhaps a 3rd-party mount can be attached to a side of the enclosure without damaging it - that would let you secure KEF Q1 Meta loudspeakers to your ceiling.

 

[chelgrian]

Actually stuff all the hi-fi nonsense just get

CDD5 | 5" Ultra-compact Passive, Coaxial On-wall Loudspeaker

Elegant and Discreet 5" Loudspeaker with Wide, Consistent Coverage, Ideal for Bars, Restaurants, Leisure & Worship Venues.

martin-audio.com

Which are coaxial and thus fit your requirement, and being pro audio have proper mounting accessories and ceiling brackets and are relatively cheap.

 

[stevenswall]

Actually stuff all the hi-fi nonsense just get

CDD5 | 5" Ultra-compact Passive, Coaxial On-wall Loudspeaker

Elegant and Discreet 5" Loudspeaker with Wide, Consistent Coverage, Ideal for Bars, Restaurants, Leisure & Worship Venues.

martin-audio.com

Which are coaxial and thus fit your requirement, and being pro audio have proper mounting accessories and ceiling brackets and are relatively cheap.

Good find! I wonder how they measure, looks like very little bass, but one can always put additional subwoofers around the room!

 

[Tom C]

FWIW, I decided to use JBL 705P on the ceiling. Because they have built-in mount points, it wasn’t hard to find an inexpensive bracket to make it work. Installation won’t begin for another month, so I don’t know how it sounds yet. But I’m not super fussy.

 

[jhaider]

FWIW, I decided to use JBL 705P on the ceiling. Because they have built-in mount points, it wasn’t hard to find an inexpensive bracket to make it work. Installation won’t begin for another month, so I don’t know how it sounds yet. But I’m not super fussy.

I did the same (well 705i) in our current immersive system — previous one had TAD/Pioneer ceiling speakers with V-shaped baffle containing the 6” “CST” coax on one side and an 8” woofer on the other, but I couldn’t take them with me because they’re just larger than current ceiling speakers. So no drop in replacements to sell with the old house. But if you can find them, Pioneer S-ic891a are still top of the class of ceiling speakers IMO.

Curious, what mount did you use? The Triad Orbit mounts I bought for our current 705i height layer are superbly engineered, but not “inexpensive.”

 

[No_hair_left]

Im using aperion audio a5, coaxial and can be mounted in any orientation. I have them ceiling mounted, bass limited though.

Or buy some of these ceiling mount enclosures https://www.ceiling-speakers.co.uk/...8391&pr_ref_pid=15116897911159&pr_seq=uniform and stick anything that fits them and your requirements in them, they have 4 different sizes to choose from.

 

[chelgrian]

Good find! I wonder how they measure, looks like very little bass, but one can always put additional subwoofers around the room!
View attachment 488838

No idea how they measure, buy one and send it to ASR There are bigger ones in the series this is the smallest version they offer.

 

[Tom C]

I did the same (well 705i) in our current immersive system — previous one had TAD/Pioneer ceiling speakers with V-shaped baffle containing the 6” “CST” coax on one side and an 8” woofer on the other, but I couldn’t take them with me because they’re just larger than current ceiling speakers. So no drop in replacements to sell with the old house. But if you can find them, Pioneer S-ic891a are still top of the class of ceiling speakers IMO.

Curious, what mount did you use? The Triad Orbit mounts I bought for our current 705i height layer are superbly engineered, but not “inexpensive.”

No-name bracket from Amazon. Looked at Monoprice, but was unsure they offered one that could handle the weight. I looked into the Triad Orbit, too, but the price was a bit rich. It’s a 9.6.4 system, so $3,000 in ceiling brackets made me pause. $500/bracket to mount a $1,000 speaker, hmm. They look to be the very best quality out there, though. And they will do whatever you need them to. The front and rear left and right ceiling speakers will be angled, but the middle top pair will be more like straight face down. As far as I can tell, no other bracket will do both, so you have to mix and match. They won’t look as nice, but it’s a black, dedicated theater room, so hopefully not too noticeable. And they were $40/pair, if I remember right.
I bet those TADs were really sweet.

 

[dagfinn]

$1800 + Amp: KEF R8 Meta is wall mountable, but I'm not sure how it would work on a ceiling. Coaxial and angled are nice.
View attachment 488759


$5000: Genelec 8331 are mountable but would protrude more, though they could be tilted, and have built in DSP to compensate for the close proximity placement. Would need audio cables, ethernet to use GLM, and power to each speaker, which is a mess for wires running on the ceiling. (Drywall and joists.)
View attachment 488763

$800-2000: Kali IN5 or SM5, less expensive options, would need power and audio wiring, except the passive SM5 which would be a nice solution though the amps are $2000 by themselves, making me lean towards the Genelecs.
View attachment 488766


Any other recommendations? These are all coaxial so that reflections from the nearby ceiling don't sound incorrect. Don't really want to cut holes in the ceiling, so looking for any other options that can be mounted, creative solutions, or things I'm missing. Probably not interested in a typical 2 way monitor that isn't coaxial as those are more or less broken for any application where there's a reflective surface nearby compared to coaxials and such, unless they have well controlled vertical dispersion.... which means I wouldn't be able to place them with as much flexibility.

Maybe a Phantom Reactor installer version could work too.

Ideally there would be a cheap, ceiling mount version of the KEF speakers, and maybe drilling into a cheap pair wouldn't be too terrible.

I have the Genelec 4020 ceiling mounted. Bigger room, go 8030 or 40. I doubt you have much benefit from coaxial when angeled correctly at these distances, and when using Audyssey there is no point using GLM capable speakers. Much cheaper, and very easy mount on one of the many available mounts. Works for me .

 

[jhaider]

It’s a 9.6.4 system, so $3,000 in ceiling brackets made me pause. $500/bracket to mount a $1,000 speaker, hmm. They look to be the very best quality out there, though. And they will do whatever you need them to. The front and rear left and right ceiling speakers will be angled, but the middle top pair will be more like straight face down.

IME the main issues with mounts are, do they stay in place once set? The second is, are they easy to use? The third is, do they have enough range of motion? The TO mounts use holes-in-pins and then friction adjustment. They won’t move. They also have the best usability: mount the sleeve bracket to to wall, mount the main bracket to speaker, slide the speaker into the sleeve, and if you want screw two parts together. (Note: don’t use the 7-series mounting plate if you want to mount the speaker from the back points. It interferes with the terminals. The stub bracket fits 705 mounting holes fine though.)

Peavey also has a nice mount (“Versamount”) that uses perpendicular sets of gears with a swiveling pole between. It’s also a lot less expensive than TO, and not as deep. Not quite as solid as TO but better than the ball mounts IME. I think one would have to drill new mounting holes in the plate for 705. For 708 the holes are in the right spots but you need to enlarge them a bit. I use one to secure our center channel (708i just like L/R) to the front wall so the cleaning folks don’t knock it out of position, lol.

 

[montyliam]

I have a few questions:
1. What's the budget? (the options in your post vary massively in cost).
2. What's the size of the room and distance from the atmos speakers?
3. What SPL do you usually listen at? (e.g. Reference, -10db etc).

The Genelec 8351B seem completely overkill for atmos. TBH, even most of the Ones seem overkill for atmos. The 8030c is probably more than sufficient in all but the most demanding applications.

I'll try to find the thread on AVSFourm, but someone did an average of a large selection of atmos mixes and found the height channels were underutilised in all cases compared to the rest of the bed layer channels. I would strongly bear this in mind when allocating funds for an atmos system.