What makes for a good Atmos (upfiring) speaker?

[tifune]

To the best of my knowledge, the only comprehensive data we have for an upfiring speaker is the R8a I submitted to Erin awhile back. So, I have nothing to compare against. And even if I did, I'm not sure what I would even be looking for?

Pragmatically, aside from high gloss finish what makes the R8a better than it's Q-series equivalent? Yes the specific Uni-Q is probably of higher quality but what does that get you aside from (maybe) a little more volume by the time it's bounced off your ceiling? Within this context how does the coaxial design benefit over a compact 2 way like Arendal, etc?

I'm not even entirely clear what the design objectives are. is the upfiring spec expecting a 120Hz crossover similar to heights? On-axis performance seems completely irrelevant, or maybe not if the bounce is just right?

 

[abdo123]

Well since we are more sensitive to horizontal reflections than vertical i think the cancelations caused by the vertical distance between the drivers of a 2-way speaker could potentially be more audible in the downfiring configuration than say the typical front firing configuration.

Also frequency response linearity (the tuning of the speaker, tonality .etc) is better with the R series than the Q series.