Sure. Usually I keep the fireplace a little more tidy but been very sick this week - basically wake up, make a fire for ambiance, take meds, lay down and listen to Depeche Mode or Bjork surround mixes, get up to take meds and stoke fire, repeat. Just discovered Electric Ladyland in 5.1 this morning, so that's been nice. You know it's bad when you work from home and still had to take off the whole week. Tested negative for COVID, flu A/B plus I'm vaccinated+boosted and got my flu shot so no idea what's up...
I have a R2C as well but I can't decide what to do with it. Option 1 is right above the screen in a more traditional center arrangement. Problem there is I never seem to like centers with music whether it's native multichannel or upmixed. I'm also not sure how it would blend with what's already present - it's a hell of a lot of work for it to end up sounding bad. And I can't just undo it because I'd have holes in the wall.
Option 2 is put it way up high as a center height channel. Downside is I'd have to hire. I don't have the gall or the tools to lift 44lbs of speaker 10ft high. Also, not a whole lot of center height material out there. Atmos doesn't even recognize it.
What say you all?
Yes, those are LS50 Meta as rear Dolby. I can't find a means of mounting any sort of rear height that scores acceptably in the WAF unless I drill into that stone, which I prefer not to do. I originally bought them for front height, but they did not blend at all with the R3 or R5. I was taken aback how distracting it was - I now know exactly what people mean when they say multichannel needs to be timbre matched. With the R3/R5 combo it's like my whole wall is a speaker, it's the epitome of "speakers that disappear.". That's my hesitation around adding R2C, nervous I'll ruin that effect.
If I can ever find a screaming deal on R11 I plan on moving the R5's to surround but using these little KH80s for now because their cute stature got them just high enough on the WAF score to pass muster. I tried some LSX's there but the software is AWFUL. At that point, the only upgrade I would consider is Be or Ultima but even setting aside the exorbitant cost I'm not sure 70+ degrees of beamwidth will sound good in this room. As you can see, it's highly reverberant and we don't want to add any treatment unless we can find something that augments the aesthetic rather than detracts.
Finally, I'm sure someone will ask. The R3's have threaded holes in the bottom so I used eye bolts and 75lb carabineers to hang then upside down. Yes, this is a risk. No, I do not advocate that *you* do it - it's a calculated risk on my part and obviously they weren't intended to be used this way. I tested in my office by letting them hang in the closet for 2 weeks and saw no noticeable signs of stress, so I went for it. Because the R5's are almost directly under the R3's it's highly improbable anyone would ever be standing there should they fall. When I get around to adding the R2C I'm also going to add another layer of R3 support just in case, maybe some ratchet straps on another eye hook in the beam - not sure yet.