Atmos upfirers yes or no?

Ollie_B_2000 · 24 Dec 2020 at 16:53

I nearly pulled the trigger recently on a pair of Dali Alteco C1s but the reviews seemed pretty hit or miss. Some people saying it's amazing but others noticing little difference.

I know a lot will depend on the source material and the room acoustics but was wondering if anyone has had much experience with adding upfiring speakers to their setup?

^JP^ · 24 Dec 2020 at 17:05

I’ve been looking at them too, have nice flat ceilings and a somewhat symmetrical room layout so in theory they should work.

Easier than chasing cables into the wall and ceiling but do they actually work?

Ollie_B_2000 · 24 Dec 2020 at 17:12

^JP^ said:
I’ve been looking at them too, have nice flat ceilings and a somewhat symmetrical room layout so in theory they should work.

Easier than chasing cables into the wall and ceiling but do they actually work?

My room is far from symmetrical although I've done my best to lay everything out as well as possible, the next improvement would probably be to move house. Which I have contemplated

I think I'm more looking for an excuse to make the purchase if I think they'll make an impact.

Grim5 · 25 Dec 2020 at 11:25

Heck no if you can avoid it - stay away from upfiring speakers and get in ceiling speakers instead

Ollie_B_2000 · 25 Dec 2020 at 11:30

Grim5 said:
Heck no if you can avoid it - stay away from upfiring speakers and get in ceiling speakers instead

Sounds pretty definitive, have you had experience with both?

Not really worth ceiling ones in my current room unless a major redesign is in order, however if you say it must be done then I guess I best get stuck in

barmyllama · 25 Dec 2020 at 11:52

Ollie_B_2000 said:
I nearly pulled the trigger recently on a pair of Dali Alteco C1s but the reviews seemed pretty hit or miss. Some people saying it's amazing but others noticing little difference.

I know a lot will depend on the source material and the room acoustics but was wondering if anyone has had much experience with adding upfiring speakers to their setup?

I've got a pair of them mounted as front heights and they are very content dependant. Most of the time they just elevate the musical score. But overhead effects such as rain or helicopters can be very convincing.

pugheaven · 25 Dec 2020 at 12:20

They will work, fact BUT won't give the same end result as ceiling speakers, it's as simple as that. However, I've heard my mates and tbh they're a lot better than I ever expected... so if this is your only choice and it's a no go or upfiring, go upfiring!

However be warned, the better the content the better the effect dependant also on your amp, so for example, I'm amazed how my Denon NeuX can simulate height speakers with a none atmos soundtrack so... enjoy!

Purgatory · 25 Dec 2020 at 14:07

Depends on your room and is the ceiling flat in the area you listen with no strange shapes ?

I love people that react with only in ceiling.. yes in ceiling are better of course if done right.

BUT

so is up firing speakers.. I have the focal setup with up firing and if I turn them off (up firing speakers) while listening to atmos or dts-x tracks I can tell right away something is missing and when setup right in the right room, they work great but you need to spend some good time setting them up with good test material and once done it works great. Also in ceiling for me can't happen as I rent and people live above me in the house above.

My setup is a 7.3.4

Download some demos from here :- they are atmos and lossless.

https://thedigitaltheater.com/dolby-trailers/

Download the Amaze demo, that one is really good and on my setup the upfiring are amazing with it and many of the new movies with good atmos tracks. A lot of good demos on that site in full quality. I even used it as a reference to setup the up firing till I could hear things right, once I did that all atmos tracks came to life correctly with the up firing speakers.

This one is a good one too :-

3t3P · 26 Dec 2020 at 14:30

I think I ran my altecos on top of my speakers for a few weeks as an experiment. It was ok but just that. They're more designed to bridge the gap of not cutting your ceiling for speakers by being mountable on your wall.

Then it depends on content. Overall the bubble of sound is better in films, but should not be overpowering.

When a director really wants something to come out of the heights you know about it e.g. scicario II helicopter scene or the deep dive scene in Ghost in the Shell (newest one).

I do think you need four to make a difference. If you can only go with two I'd go for rear heights.